vantage of the
dealer?"

"Oh, you men do put things in such a disagreeable way!" Merry laughed.
"We have to do that to protect ourselves against the outrageous prices
they charge in the first place."

"It's all a game," Cosden said seriously, "and a mighty fascinating one.
So long as you stick to the rules you may bluff all you choose, and the
best bluffer takes the blue chips."

"I'm sure I should hate it," Merry repeated. "I'm going to learn to be a
teacher, so that if some one outbluffs father I can fall back upon a
respectable pursuit."

"Even then you'll still be in the bluffing game," chuckled Cosden.
"Think of the knowledge a teacher has to assume which he doesn't
possess!"

"Oh, dear!" she exclaimed in despair. "Why be an iconoclast? You leave
me nothing but matrimony--"

"The worst bluff of all," interrupted Huntington, stepping forward from
behind their chairs, immaculate in white flannels and a panama which
rivaled Merry's. "Seeing Mr. Cosden in an academic mood, I could not
resist the temptation to snare the nuggets of wisdom which fell from his
lips. This must be my excuse for eavesdropping."

"There he is," Cosden said significantly to Merry. "You'd never dream
that he'd come within an ace of missing his breakfast, would you?"

"Missing what?" Huntington demanded. "In what little pleasantry has my
friendly critic been indulging himself?"

"Let the critic answer for himself," Cosden retorted. "I predicted to
Miss Thatcher the exact moment when you would appear, thus proving
myself a prophet."

"You take yourself too seriously, Connie. You're no prophet, nor even
the son of a prophet; you're simply a good observer. Some men run a
block and then wait five minutes for a car; I learned years ago that it
was wiser to walk deliberately to the white post and arrive there at the
precise moment. But I don't let that car get away from me, my friend."

"If my memory serves me right, Mr. Huntington, you were not always so
deliberate," remarked Mrs. Thatcher significantly.

Huntington looked up quickly, unaware until then that the other late
breakfasters had followed so closely on his heels.

"The night has been telling tales," he said.

"It was stupid of me not to recognize you before," she answered.

"Do you and Mother know each other?" Merry asked, much interested in the
new turn of the conversation.

"Your mother," said Huntington gravely, "did me the honor to accept my
escort to our Senior Danc