sic professor, the principal's brother, the school doctor. Twice they
threatened to send her home. But after I've told her that Robert was
practically engaged to Miss Hampton--well, it must be stopped, that's
all. Ferdie, can't you think of some way?"

"Eh?" says Ferdie. "What? How?"

That's the sort of help he contributes to this council of war Marjorie's
called on the side terrace.

And all Vee will do is to chuckle. "It's such, a joke!" says she.

"But it isn't," says Marjorie. "Do you know where Elsa Hampton is at
this minute? In the library, reading a magazine--alone! And she and
Robert were getting on so nicely, too. Torchy, can't you suggest
something?"

"Might slip out there with a rope and tie her to a tree while Mr. Robert
makes his escape," says I.

A snicker from Vee.

"Please!" says Marjorie. "This is really serious. I can't explain to
Elsa. But what must she think of Robert? I've simply got to get rid of
that girl somehow. She's one of the kind, you know, who would stay and
stay until----"

"Hello!" says I, glancin' out towards the entrance-gates. "What sort of
a delegation is this?"

A tall, loppy young female in a sagged skirt and a faded pink
shirtwaist is driftin' up the driveway, towin' a bow-legged
three-year-old boy by one hand and luggin' a speckle-faced baby on her
hip.

"Oh!" says Marjorie. "That scamp of a Bob Flynn's Katie again."

Seems Flynn had been one of Mr. Robert's chauffeurs that he'd wished
onto Ferdie a year or so back on account of Flynn's bein' married and
complainin' he couldn't support his fam'ly in the city. If he could get
a place in the country, where the rents wa'n't so high and his old
chowder-party friends wa'n't so thick, Flynn thought he might do better.
He had steadied down for a while, too, until he took a sudden notion to
slope and leave his interestin' fam'ly behind.

"She's coming to ask if we've heard anything of him," goes on Marjorie.
"I've a good notion to send her straight to Robert."

"Say," says I, havin' one of my thought-flashes, "wait a minute. We
might--do I understand that the flitting hubby's name was Robert?"

Marjorie nods.

"And will you stand for anything I can pull off that might jar Ella
May's strangle-hold over there!"

"Anything," says Marjorie.

"Then lend me this deserted fam'ly for a few minutes," says I. "I ain't
had time to sketch out the plot of the piece exactly, but if you say so
I'll breeze ahead."

It was going t