u may know that I was going
to order dinner served here in the studio, and you might guess that it
was to be a very festive one, but you couldn't possibly foresee who was
to share the humble board with us, no, not if you guessed a hundred
years."

"Pooh, I'm sure I could do it in one little hour if I tried," laughed
Patricia. "We don't know such a horde of people that it would take long
to run over every name we know."

"Oh, don't try, please don't!" cried Judith in alarm, lest valuable time
be lost. "Tell us, Bruce, do, Mrs. Nat hates to haggle over news."

There was a merry outcry at this transparent plea and then Bruce, with a
pretense of reluctance, gave in.

"We're going to have dinner here in the studio with real waiters, Judy,
and a bunch of flowers for each lady--don't interrupt, please, till I've
done. A bunch of violets for you and Elinor and Mrs. Spicer and the
happy song-bird there, and also for Miss Margaret Howes and Mrs. Hiram
Todd."

There was such a chorus of questions that Bruce held up his hands in
protest.

"Give me time, and I'll confess all," he entreated. "Don't be too hard
on a poor solitary man-body. Remember, you're four to one, and be easy.
I had asked the Todds for a surprise to you all, and today I met Miss
Howes on the street--just back in town and honing for a sight of old
friends, and I nailed her on the spot. Fortunately I could get them all
on the phone and they one and all bubbled with joy at the prospect of a
quiet little dinner in the shelter of our roof-tree. Margaret Howes is
sick of hotel life and Mrs. Todd isn't quite acclimated to it yet."

Mrs. Spicer shook her head. "We didn't even know there was a Mrs.
Hiram," she said with a chuckle. "When did it happen?"

"The very day after you left," replied Elinor. "They went to
Washington--Hiram had some more business there--and Marian had the time
of her life. She looks like a different girl, too. She's taken Hiram in
hand already, and he is beginning to seem like other people. She told me
the day we called on them here that she had given all of Hiram's wedding
outfit to the Salvation Army, and she meant to fit him out right here in
New York."

Patricia puckered her brow. "I thought Hiram was very well as he was,"
she said doubtfully. "He was the sort that couldn't be much changed, and
it seems silly to deck him out----"

Bruce interrupted her. "That isn't the idea, my dear Pat," he explained,
smiling. "Marian says Hiram h