es he'd gone through. We had to listen. You can guess what a joy it
was. And, all the time, I could watch Mr. Robert gettin' sorer and
sorer.

"Entertainin' party, eh?" I remarks on the side, as we escapes from the
dinin'-room.

"Forsythe," says Mr. Robert, "is one of those persons you're always
wanting to kick and never do. I could generally avoid him at the club,
but here----"

Mr. Robert shrugs his shoulders. Then he adds:

"I say, Torchy, you have clever ideas now and then."

"Who, me?" says I. "Someone's been kiddin' you."

"Perhaps," says he; "but if anything should occur to you that might help
toward putting Forsythe in a position where real work and genuine
discomfort couldn't be dodged--well, I should be deeply grateful."

"What a cruel thought!" says I. "Still, if a miracle like that could be
pulled, it would be entertainin' to watch. Eh?"

"Especially if it had to do with handling cold, slippery things,"
chuckles Mr. Robert, "like iced eels or pickles."

Then we both grins. I was tryin' to picture Forsythe servin' a sentence
as helper in a fish market or assistant stirrer in a soap fact'ry. Not
that anything like that could happen through me. Who was I to interfere
with a brilliant drawin'-room performer like him? Honest, with Forsythe
scintillatin' around, I felt like a Bolsheviki of the third class. And
yet, the longer I watched him, the more I mulled over that hint Mr.
Robert had thrown out.

I was still wonderin' if I was all hollow above the eyes, when our
placid afternoon gatherin' is busted complete by a big cream-colored
limousine rollin' through the porte-cochere and a new arrival breezin'
in. From the way Jevons swells his chest out as he helps her shed the
mink-lined motor coat, I guessed she must be somebody important.

"Why, it's Miss Gorman!" whispers Vee.

"Not _the_ Miss Gorman--Miss Jane?" I says.

Vee nods, and I stretches my neck out another kink. Who wouldn't? Not
just because she's a society head-liner, or the richest old maid in the
country, but because she's such a wonder at gettin' things done. You
know, I expect--Red Cross work, suffrage campaignin', Polish relief.
Say, I'll bet if she could be turned loose in Mexico or Russia for a
couple of months, she'd have things runnin' as smooth as a directors'
meetin' of the Standard Oil.

Look at the things she's put through, since the war started, just by
crashin' right in and stayin' on the job. They say she keeps four
sec