ght you had it in you."

"Why not?"

"Well--"

"It's a capital idea," said Lucille. "Quite out of the question, of
course."

"How do you mean?"

"Don't you know that the one thing Father hates more than anything else
in the world is anything like a cabaret? People are always coming to
him, suggesting that it would brighten up the dinner hour if he had
singers and things, and he crushes them into little bits. He thinks
there's nothing that lowers the tone of a place more. He'll bite you in
three places when you suggest it to him!"

"Ah! But has it escaped your notice, lighting system of my soul, that
the dear old dad is not at present in residence? He went off to fish at
Lake What's-its-name this morning."

"You aren't dreaming of doing this without asking him?"

"That was the general idea."

"But he'll be furious when he finds out."

"But will he find out? I ask you, will he?"

"Of course he will."

"I don't see why he should," said Bill, on whose plastic mind the plan
had made a deep impression.

"He won't," said Archie, confidently. "This wheeze is for one night
only. By the time the jolly old guv'nor returns, bitten to the bone by
mosquitoes, with one small stuffed trout in his suit-case, everything
will be over and all quiet once more along the Potomac. The scheme is
this. My chappie wants his song heard by a publisher. Your girl wants
her voice heard by one of the blighters who get up concerts and all that
sort of thing. No doubt you know such a bird, whom you could invite to
the hotel for a bit of dinner?"

"I know Carl Steinburg. As a matter of fact, I was thinking of writing
to him about Spectatia."

"You're absolutely sure that IS her name?" said Archie, his voice still
tinged with incredulity. "Oh, well, I suppose she told you so herself,
and no doubt she knows best. That will be topping. Rope in your pal
and hold him down at the table till the finish. Lucille, the beautiful
vision on the sky-line yonder, and I will be at another table
entertaining Maxie Blumenthal"

"Who on earth is Maxie Blumenthal?" asked Lucille.

"One of my boyhood chums. A music-publisher. I'll get him to come along,
and then we'll all be set. At the conclusion of the performance Miss--"
Archie winced--"Miss Spectatia Huskisson will be signed up for a forty
weeks' tour, and jovial old Blumenthal will be making all arrangements
for publishing the song. Two birds, as I indicated before, with one
stone! How about it?