who've wanted Sukey.

But the worst of it was I had to go without hearin' how it all come out.
Mr. Robert didn't have much to report next mornin', either. "Oh, we left
them in the library, still talking," says he.

It's near a week later too that I gets anything more definite. Then I
was up to the Ellins's on an errand when I discovers Blair waitin' in
the front room. He greets me real cordial and friendly, which is quite
a jar. A minute later down the stairs floats Marjorie and her friend
Miss Billings.

"Oh, there you are, Joey!" says Blair, rushin' out and grabbin' her by
the arm impetuous. "Come along. I'm going to take you both to dinner and
then to the opera. Come!"

"Isn't he brutal?" laughs Joey, pattin' him folksy on the cheek.

So I take it there's been something doin' in the solitaire and wilt-thou
line. Some cross-mated pair they'll make; but I ain't so sure it won't
be a good match.

Anyway, when he gets her as a side partner, Sukey needn't do any more
worryin' about bears.

CHAPTER XI

TEAMWORK WITH AUNTY

As Mr. Robert hangs up the desk 'phone and turns to me I catches him
smotherin' a smile. "Torchy," says he, "are you a patron of the plastic
art?"

"Corns, or backache?" says I.

"Not plasters," says he; "plastic; in short, sculpture."

"Never sculped a sculpin," says I. "What's the joke?"

"On the contrary," says he, "it's quite serious,--a sculptor in
distress; a noble young Belgian at that, one Djickyns, in whose cause,
it seems, I was rash enough to enlist at a recent dinner party. And
now----" Mr. Robert waves towards his piled-up desk.

"I'd be a hot substitute along that line, wouldn't I?" says I.

"As I understand the situation," goes on Mr. Robert, "it is not a matter
of giving artistic advice, but of--er--financing the said Djickyns."

"Oh!" says I. "Slippin' him a check?"

Mr. Robert shakes his head. "Nothing so simple," says he. "One doesn't
slip checks to noble young sculptors. In this instance I am supposed to
assist in outlining a plan whereby certain alleged objects of art may
be--er----"

"Wished onto suckers in exchange for real money, eh?" says I. "Ain't
that it?"

Mr. Robert nods.

"With so many dividends bein' passed," says I, "that's goin' to take
some strategy."

"Hence this appeal to us," says he. "And I might add, Torchy, that one
of those most interested is a near relative of a certain young lady
who----"

"Aunty?" says I.

It was. So I