"Yes, Serena?" he faltered.

"Can't you ask Mr. Black to sit down?"

"Hey? Why, course I can. I judged he was goin' to sit down anyway.
Wasn't figgerin' to stand up all the evenin', was you, Bar--er--Phelps?"

"No," replied Mr. Black. To prove it he selected the most comfortable
chair in the room.

"I had such a time to get Phelps to come," declared Annette, sinking,
with a rustle, into the next best chair. "He wanted to see you both,
of course, and to welcome you to Scarford, but he is SO busy and has
so many engagements. If it isn't a directors' meeting it is a house
committee at the club, or--or something. You should be thankful that
your husband is not a man of affairs and constantly in demand. It was a
club meeting to-night, wasn't it, Phelps, dear?"

"'Twas a stag dinner," observed Mr. Black. "Say, Dan, I'll have to take
you to one of 'em some time. It's a good bunch of fellows and we have
some of the cleverest vaudeville stunts afterward that you ever saw.
Last week there were a couple of coons that--"

"Phelps!" Annette interrupted tartly, "you needn't go into details. I
don't imagine Captain and Mrs. Dott will be greatly interested. What a
charming old room this is, isn't it? SO quaint! Everything looks as if
it had been here a hundred years."

Before Serena could frame a reply to this back-handed compliment
the unconscious B. Phelps removed the greater part of its sting by
observing:

"That butler of yours looks as if he had been here a thousand. I felt as
if George the First was opening the door for me. He's a star, all right.
Did he come with the place?"

Mrs. Dott explained that Hapgood was one of Aunt Lavinia's old servants.
"She thought the world of him. Daniel and I feel perfectly safe in
leaving everything to him. Auntie found him somewhere abroad--working
for a lord or a count or something, I believe--and brought him over. He
is pretty expensive, his wages, I mean, but he is worth it all. Don't
you think so?"

Yes, Mrs. Black found it much more difficult to patronize than she
expected, and Serena was correspondingly happy. But the crowning triumph
came later. The doorbell rang, and Hapgood entered the drawing-room
bearing a tray upon which were several cards. He bent and whispered
respectfully.

Mrs. Dott was evidently surprised and startled.

"Who?" she asked.

Hapgood whispered again.

Serena rose. "Yes, of course," she said nervously. "Yes, certainly. I
declare, I--"

"What's