't to-night, and prepare things to send in, too."

"Oh, well, see to it if you'll be so kind; only let me go, for I've only
fifteen minutes now to meet a consultant ten miles away. Good-bye, Win."

He took time to turn and smile at her, and for the sake of the
smile--she knew of none other just like it--she forgave him for
involving her in the labours she already clearly foresaw were to be
hers. How precisely like Red Pepper Burns it was to plan for a "stag"
dinner in this inconsequent way! If it had been a coming operation, now,
no detail of preparation would have been too insignificant to command
his attention. But in the present instance unquestionably all he had
done was to appear at the door of the kitchen and casually inform
Cynthia that eight or nine men were coming to dinner to-night, and
he'd trust her to see that they should have something good to eat. Poor
Cynthia!

Winifred ran over to consult Martha Macauley and together they braved
Burns's housekeeper in her kitchen. The result was relief, as far as
the dinner itself was concerned. Cynthia was a superior cook, and long
experience with exclusively masculine tastes had taught her the sort of
thing which, however out of the beaten line for entertaining, was likely
to prove successful in pleasing "eight or nine men," wherever they might
hail from.

"Cynthia's planned a dinner that will be about as different from
Lazier's concoctions as could be imagined," Winifred said to Martha,
"but it will taste what Ches calls 'licking good.' Now for the table.
I'm afraid Red's china and linen are none too fine. We'll have to help
him out there."

They helped him out. Only the finest of Martha's linen and silver, the
thinnest of Winifred's plates and cups and the most precious of her
glass would content them. When the table was set in the low-ceiled,
casement-windowed old dining-room where Red Pepper was accustomed to
bolt his meals alone when he took time for them at all, it was a to
table to suggest arrogantly the hand of woman, Winifred eyed it with
milled satisfaction and concern.

"It looks lovely, Martha, but not a bit bachelor-like. Do you suppose
he'll mind?"

"Not as long as the food is right; and judging by the heavenly smells
from the kitchen there's no fear for that. But it's five o'clock,
and the flowers he promised you haven't come. Do you suppose he's
forgotten?"

"Of course he has. If he remembers the dinner itself it'll be all we can
expect of h