d into the
limelight. Mr. O'Neill contends that she hit him with a brick, an iron
casing, and the Singer Building. Be that as it may, her efforts were
sufficiently able to induce him to retire for reinforcements, which,
arriving, arrested the supper-party regardless of age or sex.

At the police-court this morning Miss Preston maintained that she and
her friends were merely having a quiet home-evening and that Mr. O'Neill
was no gentleman. The male guests gave their names respectively as
Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd-George, and William J. Bryan. These,
however, are believed to be incorrect. But the moral is, if you want
excitement rather than sleep, stay at the Hotel Cosmopolis.

Bill may have quaked inwardly as he listened to this epic but outwardly
he was unmoved.

"Well," he said, "what about it?"

"What about it!" said Lucille.

"What about it!" said Archie. "Why, my dear old friend, it simply means
that all the time we've been putting in making your personality winning
has been chucked away. Absolutely a dead loss! We might just as well
have read a manual on how to knit sweaters."

"I don't see it," maintained Bill, stoutly.

Lucille turned apologetically to her husband.

"You mustn't judge me by him, Archie, darling. This sort of thing
doesn't run in the family.-We are supposed to be rather bright on the
whole. But poor Bill was dropped by his nurse when he was a baby, and
fell on his head."

"I suppose what you're driving at," said the goaded Bill, "is that what
has happened will make father pretty sore against girls who happen to be
in the chorus?"

"That's absolutely it, old thing, I'm sorry to say. The next person who
mentions the word chorus-girl in the jolly old governor's presence is
going to take his life in his hands. I tell you, as one man to another,
that I'd much rather be back in France hopping over the top than do it
myself."

"What darned nonsense! Mabel may be in the chorus, but she isn't like
those girls."

"Poor old Bill!" said Lucille. "I'm awfully sorry, but it's no use not
facing facts. You know perfectly well that the reputation of the hotel
is the thing father cares more about than anything else in the world,
and that this is going to make him furious with all the chorus-girls in
creation. It's no good trying to explain to him that your Mabel is in
the chorus but not of the chorus, so to speak."

"Deuced well put!" said Archie, approvingly. "You're absolutely right. A
chorus