the real thing."

"That's what they all say! I wish I had a dollar for every
time--Forgotten what I was going to say!" broke off Archie, prudently.
"So you think," he went on, after a pause, "that William's latest is
going to be one more shock for the old dad?"

"I can't imagine Father approving of her."

"I've studied your merry old progenitor pretty closely," said Archie,
"and, between you and me, I can't imagine him approving of anybody!"

"I can't understand why it is that Bill goes out of his way to pick
these horrors. I know at least twenty delightful girls, all pretty and
with lots of money, who would be just the thing for him; but he sneaks
away and goes falling in love with someone impossible. And the worst
of it is that one always feels one's got to do one's best to see him
through."

"Absolutely! One doesn't want to throw a spanner into the works of
Love's young dream. It behoves us to rally round. Have you heard this
girl sing?"

"Yes. She sang this afternoon."

"What sort of a voice has she got?"

"Well, it's--loud!"

"Could she pick a high note off the roof and hold it till the janitor
came round to lock up the building for the night?"

"What on earth do you mean?"

"Answer me this, woman, frankly. How is her high note? Pretty lofty?"

"Why, yes."

"Then say no more," said Archie. "Leave this to me, my dear old better
four-fifths! Hand the whole thing over to Archibald, the man who never
lets you down. I have a scheme!"

As Archie approached his suite on the following afternoon he heard
through the closed door the drone of a gruff male voice; and, going in,
discovered Lucille in the company of his brother-in-law. Lucille, Archie
thought, was looking a trifle fatigued. Bill, on the other hand, was in
great shape. His eyes were shining, and his face looked so like that of
a stuffed frog that Archie had no difficulty in gathering that he had
been lecturing on the subject of his latest enslaver.

"Hallo, Bill, old crumpet!" he said.

"Hallo, Archie!"

"I'm so glad you've come," said Lucille. "Bill is telling me all about
Spectatia."

"Who?"

"Spectatia. The girl, you know. Her name is Spectatia Huskisson."

"It can't be!" said Archie, incredulously.

"Why not?" growled Bill.

"Well, how could it?" said Archie, appealing to him as a reasonable man.
"I mean to say! Spectatia Huskisson! I gravely doubt whether there is
such a name."

"What's wrong with it?" demanded the incensed