discovered
it in two julep goblets, cuddled guiltily behind a nearby tree. For as
Miss Liz had come across the lawn to join them half an hour earlier,
this refreshment was hurried out of sight--the Colonel's resolution of
independence notwithstanding--and now, before the ice could entirely
melt, Brent, by a polite tirade against the prim old lady's pet hobby,
trusted her increasing wrath to clarify the situation by routing her
housewards. While he and the Colonel knew this would inevitably come,
her anger was not yet at sufficient heat, and she held her ground with
defiance bristling from every stiff fold of her black silk dress.

Jane gave the men a reproachful look, and Brent's face flushed when he
saw her eyes hover about the juleps; but she entered their scheme by
asking:

"Why does everyone seem so serious?"

"My dear," Miss Liz began to fire, "your father had suggested a Fourth
of July celebration--a most fitting tribute to our departed heroes--but
I regret to say that two not very high minded gentlemen--" The
lorgnette, turned first upon the Colonel and then on Brent, completed
her indictment.

"I'm sure we are misunderstood," Brent murmured, but the Colonel
maintained a discreet silence.

"Can it be, Mr. McElroy," she glared at him with straightening lips,
"that I misunderstood you to say George Washington was not a paragon of
truth?"

"You mean a bird?" he innocently asked.

"A bird, sir?" the black dress gave a startled rustle.

"Excuse me; I thought you said ptarmigan."

The conventional old Colonel committed a very deplorable breach of
etiquette--he snickered; but twisted it into a lusty cough, gutturally
explaining:

"Really, my cold!"

"Mr. McElroy," she turned severely to Jane, "has been
blaspheming--blaspheming the traditions of our noble heroes! My dear, it
is positively disgusting!"

"The subject is quite a closed book to him," Jane sweetly replied, and
the Colonel was threatened with another coughing spell.

"I didn't say anything against heroes," the engineer explained, "except
that none of them can measure up to our heroines."

But from the toss of Miss Liz's head this had not brought him a grain of
grace.

"What hero did I malign?"

"You said," she snapped, "that Washington was neither truthful nor
honest!"

"Oh, now, I couldn't have!" he protested. "I merely said, in regard to
the cherry tree episode, his intention was not only to cut, but to run.
You've heard the expressi