hey put something in it! Such things are done; I've heard of men being
drugged and robbed and all sorts of things. And I'm just as much of an
advocate for temperance as you are, Phenie--and I think Ford was just
right to fight those men. There are," she declared wisely,
"circumstances where it's perfectly just and right for a man to fight. I
can imagine circumstances under which Chester would be justified in
fighting--"

"In case sixteen men should hold his nose and pour drugged whisky down
his throat?" Phenie inquired mildly, curling the end of her braid over a
slim forefinger.

Mrs. Kate made an inarticulate sound which might almost be termed a
snort, and walked from the room with her head well up and a manner which
silently made plain to the onlooker that she might say many things which
would effectually crush her opponent, but was magnanimously refraining
from doing so.

Josephine did not even pay her the tribute of looking at her; she had at
that moment heard a step upon the porch, and she was leaning to one side
so that she might see who was coming into the dining-room. As it
happened, it was Mason himself. Miss Josephine immediately lost interest
in the arrival and took to tracing with her finger the outline of a
Japanese lady with a startling coiffure and an immense bow upon her
spine, who was simpering at a lotus bed on Josephine's kimono. She did
not look up until some one stepped upon the porch again.

This time it was Ford, and he stopped and painstakingly removed the last
bit of soil from his boot-soles upon the iron scraper which was attached
to one end of the top step; when that duty had been performed, he paid
further tribute to the immaculate house he was about to enter, by wiping
his feet upon a mat placed with mathematical precision upon the porch,
at the head of the steps. Josephine watched the ceremonial, and studied
Ford's profile, and did not lay her head back upon the cushion behind
her until he disappeared into the dining-room. Then she stared at a
colored-crayon portrait of Buddy which hung on the wall opposite, and
her eyes were the eyes of one who sees into the past.

Buddy, when he opened the door and projected himself into the room,
startled her into a little exclamation.

"Dad says he'll carry you out to the table and you can have a whole side
to yourself," he announced without preface. "They'll just pick up your
chair, and pack chair and all in, and set you down as ee-asy--do you
w