eeps fillin' it up, and that twinkle in her eye develops more and
more, and her conversation gets livelier and livelier. So does
Cornelia's. They gets off some real bright things, too. You'd never guess
there was so much fun in Cornie, or that she could look so much like a
stunner.

She was just leanin' over to whisper something to me about the peroxide
puffed girl at the next table, and I was tryin' to stand bein' tickled in
the neck by that long feather of hers while I listens, and Miss Stover
was snuggled up real chummy on the other side, when I looks up the aisle
and sees a little group watchin' us with their mouths open and their
eyebrows up.

Leadin' the way is Pinckney. Oh, he'd done his part, all right, just as
I'd told him over the wire; for right behind him is Durgin, starin' at
Cornelia until he was pop eyed.

But that wa'n't all. Trust Pinckney to add something. Beyond Durgin is
Mrs. Purdy-Pell--and Sadie. Now, I've seen Mrs. McCabe when she's been
some jarred; but I don't know as I ever watched the effect of such a jolt
as this. You see, Cornelia's back was to her, and all Sadie can see is
that wistaria lid with the feather danglin' down my neck.

Sadie don't indulge in any preliminaries. She marches right along, with
her chin in the air, and glues them Irish blue eyes of hers on me in a
way I can feel yet. "Well, I must say!" says she.

"Eh?" says I, tryin' hard to put on a pleased grin. "So Pinckney brought
you along too, did he? Lovely evenin', ain't it?"

"Why, Sadie?" says Cornelia, jumpin' up and givin' 'em a full face view.
And you should have seen how that knocks the wind out of Sadie.

"Wha-a-at!" says she. "You?"

"Of course," says Cornie. "And we're just having the grandest lark,
and----Oh! Why, Durgin! Where in the world did you come from? How
jolly!"

"Ain't it?" says I. "You see, Sadie, I'm carryin' out instructions."

Well, the minute she gets wise that it's all a job that Pinckney and I
have put up between us, and discovers that my giddy lookin' friend is
only Cousin Cornelia doin' the butterfly act, the thunder storm is all
over. The waiter shoves up another table, and they plants Durgin next to
Cornie, and the festivities takes a new start.

Did Durgin boy forget all about them chilly feet of his? Why, you could
almost see the frost startin' out before he'd said a dozen words, and by
the time he'd let the whole effect sink in, he was no nearer contractin'
chilblains than a Zul