rain east this afternoon."

"The very thing. Would she come?"

"Why, yes. I asked her the other night and she said she would."

"Then, why have you waited so long to tell me. Where are we to meet
her?"

"Well, I didn't know for sure what day you would be here, so I didn't
make any definite arrangement. I'm to let her know."

"Oh, Jimmy! Jimmy! You need a guardian, and not a guardian angel,
either. You need the other sort. You deserve hours of punishment for
your thoughtlessness. Now go right away and send her word that I am here
and dying to meet her."

"All right. We'll have lunch here at the Annex. You'll excuse me just a
moment, and I'll send her a telegram and ask her to come in."

"Yes, but hurry. You should have told her yesterday. When will you ever
learn how to be nice to a girl?"

Jimmy, feeling somehow that he had been guilty of a breach of courtesy
that should fill him with remorse, hastened to the telegraph desk and
scribbled a message to Lucy. It read:

"Please meet me and Mary at Annex at 2 o'clock."

"Rush that," he said to the operator.

The operator glanced over the message and grinned.

"Certainly, sir," he said. "This sort of a message always goes rush.
Wish you luck, sir."

The operator has not yet completely gathered the reason for the
reproving stare Jimmy gave him. In part it has been explained to him.
But, as Jimmy has said since, the man deserved censure for drawing an
erroneous conclusion from another's mistake.

It was then noon, so Jimmy and Mary, at Mary's suggestion, got an
appetite by making another tour of the shops. In the meantime a
snail-paced messenger boy was climbing the Putnam steps with the
telegram in his hand.

III

Lucy took the telegram from the boy and told him to wait until she saw
if there should be an answer. She tore off the envelope, unfolded the
yellow slip of paper, read the message, gasped, blushed and turned and
left the patient boy on the steps.

Into the house she rushed, calling to her mother. She thrust the
telegram into her hands, exclaiming:

"Read that! Isn't it what we might have expected?"

"Mercy! What is it? Who's dead?"

"Nobody! It's better than that," was Lucy's astonishing reply.

Mrs. Putnam read the telegram, and then beamingly drew her daughter to
her and kissed her. The two then wrote a message, after much counting of
words, to be sent to Jimmy. It read:

"Of course. Mama will come with me. Telephone to papa."

When