whether I want it or have any use for it or not. Miss
Maitland, I bid you an exceedingly good day, and venture to express the
hope that you will concede that latent in my anatomy I may have a
liberal share of that something--the name of which I failed to
catch--although I may perhaps have up to now given no evidence of its
possession."

"You would do much better, Charlie," said his hostess, with a laugh,
"if you announced with all the emphasis at your command that you had
none of this particular quality concealed about your person. Whatever
it was, Helen just said that she never wanted to see or hear of such a
thing again."

"Miss Maitland," said the visitor with due solemnity, "I assure you
that whatever else I may be, I am as free from the taint of this
unmentionable attribute as a babe unborn. Isabel, you will bear me out
in this?"

"I feel sure of it," Helen replied smilingly. "In fact, I should have
exonerated you even without inside information of any sort. Really,
I'm awfully glad you've come. Here we are, two lone dull girls, hungry
to be amused. Be as chivalrous as you can in our distressing state."

"You two lone girls lonely!" retorted Mr. Wilkinson. "Ridiculous!
That is certainly a fine ground on which to seek sympathy from me! I
forget who it is has the proverb, 'Never pity a woman weeping or a cat
in the dark.' And I am reminded of it when I look at you two. You and
my fair cousin, when you have one another to talk to, are just about as
much in need of sympathy as a tiger is of tea . . . Speaking of tea--"
he turned to Isabel with bland inquiry in his face, after a hasty
glance about the room to make sure that no ulterior preparations had
been made. "I am anxious," he explained, "to see what progress has
been made since last I inculcated my theories as to edibles--and
detrimentals."

Isabel rose with a sigh.

"I see that I shall have to go and superintend the matter personally,"
she said, "for the customs of years are too strong to be utterly
overcome all at once. I can only dimly conjecture Peter's dismay if he
were asked to pass the Hamburger steak to Mr. Wilkinson, yet that is
the shadowy future awaiting him."

With a laugh she vanished through the doorway, and the visitor seated
himself solemnly across from Miss Maitland, whom he then proceeded to
regard with a gloomy eye.

"It is a fearful strain on one's comic spirit to have it suddenly
cooled," he said. "It makes it liable