the children of all her friends. But getting
a hint of the event her friends hastily arranged a Tom Thumb wedding
for charity, and then assured Beatrice it was merely a coincidence
that the two things interfered with each other, wasn't it a shame?
Realizing that this dominating note was not a social asset Beatrice
hastily sided in with her father and the authorities.

Besides, she was tired of Tawny Adonis; he was destructive, and a
secret source of worry if she could have been made to admit it. So she
prepared for a birthday fete and determined to have the public-school
children as the guests. But these refused her invitation as well; so
she went into the slums and collected thirty harmless waifs who felt
that a lion's birthday party was not to be despised, and brought them
triumphantly into the Italian gardens.

The waifs gathered round an outdoor table, too busy swallowing food to
bother about their possible and likely fate. In the centre of the
table was a huge birthday cake for Tawny Adonis. It was made of raw
hamburger steak, generously iced with bone marrow, and the single
anniversary candle took the form of a balanced soup bone. After the
children had eaten their fill Tawny Adonis was let loose upon the
scene and at the birthday cake, and during the wild smashing of glass
and china and the excited shrieks of the waifs Tawny went to the
birthday cake and devoured it, soup bone and all.

Gay was out of town the day of the party but Trudy bravely assisted,
as did one or two others, Mark Constantine and his sister sitting in
the windows to watch the procedure while Beatrice in a gown of
turquoise velvet with a coronet of frosted leaves played Lady
Bountiful and dismissed the slum brigade as soon as possible, sending
them home with the confused knowledge that a beautiful lady in angel
clothes and a wild animal sometimes meant plenty of ham sandwiches and
ice cream, as well as the opportunity to slip a fork into one's
pocket.

Steve declined to take any part in the celebration, but at the
conclusion of the event he appeared with policemen and a patrol wagon
containing a cage, and amid gay farewells and grim coaxings Tawny
Adonis was escorted to the railway station and shipped back to the
circus man, at a loss of five hundred dollars--not counting the damage
done--to the Gorgeous Girl!

CHAPTER XV

Trudy was keen as a brier whenever her own realm was threatened. With
the shrewdness which caused her to