of calling upon you to-morrow," said
Captain Kendall, unabashed and joyous, as he walked away.

So active an intelligence as Sir Robert's requires plenty of food, and
when Mrs. Ketchum senior issued from her room about ten the next morning,
whom should she meet in the hall but the baronet in a state of the most
overflowing energy and brilliant good humor, dressed in a suit of striped
red-and-white "pajamas," having on his head a paper cap, under his arm a
roll of designs, and in his mind the delightful intention of painting the
ceiling of Mabel's boudoir!

"Good-morning, madam. Here we are," he said, shaking his box of paints and
stencils at her. "I have improvised a scaffolding, and am now going to
work on my outlines. I planned the whole thing in bed last night, and,
unless I am much mistaken, we are going to have the prettiest boudoir in
this part of the country. I shall do a panel or two to get the effect, and
any workman can finish it."

"But can you do it?" asked Mrs. Ketchum, amazed, but interested.

"You shall see. I frescoed the chapel on my place at home, and I may say
there have been worse pieces of work," replied Sir Robert, descending the
stairs as he spoke, eager to get to work.

"Is he _raving crazy_, Mabel? What on earth has he got on? He isn't
_respectable_. I declare to goodness, he has set my heart beating so I
shan't get over it all day," said the startled lady to her daughter-in-law,
who joined her just then.

"Oh, for shame, ma, to give yourself away like that! Fashionable men wear
those costumes altogether now," said Mr. Ketchum, coming up. "You see,
Daisy, that if I shocked him beyond expression yesterday morning, as you
said I should, he has horrified me to death to-day: so I guess we are
quits. Come along: let's go down to see the trapeze-performance."

Down they went, and, meeting Mr. Ramsay, who was coming up, Job stopped a
moment to tell him to take out any of the horses that he fancied. "Take
the piebalds," said he, "if you'd like to have a drive, and take some nice
girl--Miss Ethel or Bijou Brown--for a two-forty shine."

"Thanks awfully," said Mr. Ramsay. "But I think I had better--that is, I
had rather ask Heathcote."

"You are horribly welcome, but I don't think much of your taste," replied
Mr. Ketchum, not understanding what a proposition he had made.

In the lower hall they found the eminent divine, irreproachably clerical
and dignified, and Captain Kendall, just arrived. Si