sent and borrowed them."

_Roberts_, less lightly: "We had to do _something_, Agnes. I knew you
would be terribly anxious if I didn't come--"

_Mrs. Roberts_, with abject contrition: "Oh, don't speak a word, you
poor suffering martyr!"

_Campbell:_ "We should have borrowed every coat in the block if you
hadn't got back."

_Mrs. Campbell:_ "Yes, and I've no doubt you'd have taken a perfectly
fiendish enjoyment in every failure."

_Campbell_, with a wild, spluttering laugh: "Well, the disappointments
certainly had their compensations. Roberts, just let them see how well
you look in Merrick's coat! Or, no: try Baker's first; I think Baker's
is a little more swell on you, if anything."

_Bella_, at the door: "Supper is served, Mrs. Roberts."

_Campbell:_ "Supper?"

_Mrs. Roberts:_ "Oh, yes! Mrs. Miller never gives you anything but
ice-cream; and I thought we should all need something hot when we got
back, and so I had a few--But I forgot all about the supper!"

_Campbell:_ "I'm glad Bella didn't. Better let Bella put Roberts's
clothes away, after this."

_Mrs. Roberts_, in extreme dejection: "Yes, I think I really had,
Willis. I'm not fit to be Edward's wife, if I behave that way to him."

_Campbell:_ "Well, well, he must have a divorce, then; but not till
after supper."

_Mrs. Campbell:_ "Yes, never mind now, Agnes. It's all turned out well,
as it is: Edward has been spared a fearful bore, and nobody will ever
be any the wiser about your putting away his evening dress--"

_Campbell:_ "Oh, indeed! _Won't_ they? When Baker and Merrick meet at
the club, and exchange notes about Agnes locking up Roberts's clothes--"

_Mrs. Roberts_, with horror: "Edward! You didn't send that word to
them!"

_Roberts:_ "Why--why--I'm afraid we did, something like it, my dear. We
had to explain our request, somehow--"

_Mrs. Roberts_, relaxing into a chair: "Then I simply never can hold up
my head again." She lets it fall in typical despair.

_Mrs. Campbell_, pressing the annunciator, with the energy of a lioness
at bay: "I don't believe it's as bad as that. It simply can't be. It
would be too abominable." As Bella appears in answer to the bell: "Did
you tell the gentlemen, when you went to borrow the coats for Mr.
Roberts, that Mrs. Roberts had locked up his dress-suit?"

_Bella:_ "Why, that's what Mr. Campbell said to say, ma'am, but I didn't
believe Mrs. Roberts would quite like it, ma'am, and so I said--" She
hesitates