upon
the platform.

The dreadful supper was over.

The ineffable One, supremely pink, rose from her seat at William's
side and moved toward the platform with the glowing Joe Bullitt. Then
William, roused to action by this sight, sprang to his feet and took a
step toward them. But it was only one weak step.

A warm and ample hand placed itself firmly inside the crook of his
elbow. "Let's get started for this one before the floor gets all crowded
up," said Miss Boke.

Miss Boke danced and danced with him; she danced him on--and on--and
on----

At half past one the orchestra played "Home, Sweet Home." As the last
bars sounded, a group of earnest young men who had surrounded the lovely
guest of honor, talking vehemently, broke into loud shouts, embraced one
another and capered variously over the lawn. Mr. Parcher beheld from a
distance these manifestations, and then, with an astonishment even more
profound, took note of the tragic William, who was running toward him,
radiant--Miss Boke hovering futilely in the far background.

"What's all the hullabaloo?" Mr. Parcher inquired.

"Miss Pratt!" gasped William. "Miss Pratt!"

"Well, what about her?"

And upon receiving William's reply, Mr. Parcher might well have
discerned behind it the invisible hand of an ironic but recompensing
Providence making things even--taking from the one to give to the other.

"She's going to stay!" shouted the happy William. "She's promised to
stay another week!"

And then, mingling with the sounds of rejoicing, there ascended to
heaven the stricken cry of an elderly man plunging blindly into the
house in search of his wife.

XXVIII

RANNIE KIRSTED

Observing the monotonously proper behavior of the sun, man had an absurd
idea and invented Time. Becoming still more absurd, man said, "So much
shall be a day; such and such shall be a week. All weeks shall be the
same length." Yet every baby knows better! How long for Johnnie Watson,
for Joe Bullitt, for Wallace Banks--how long for William Sylvanus Baxter
was the last week of Miss Pratt? No one can answer. How long was that
week for Mr. Parcher? Again the mind is staggered.

Many people, of course, considered it to be a week of average size.
Among these was Jane.

Throughout seven days which brought some tense moments to the Baxter
household, Jane remained calm; and she was still calm upon the eighth
morning as she stood in the front yard of her own place of residence,
gazin