unning, you have; but I've found you out at last....
_Per_-ce-val!"

Over the cheeks of P. Sybarite crept a delicate tint of pink. His eyes
wavered and fell. He looked, and was, acutely unhappy.

"You're a sly one, you are," George gloated--"always signin' your name
'P. Sybarite' and pretendin' your maiden monaker was 'Peter'! But now
we know you! Take off them whiskers--Perceval!"

A really wise mind-reader would have called a policeman, then and
there; for mayhem was the least of the crimes contemplated by P.
Sybarite. But restraining himself, he did nothing more than
disentangle his legs, slip down from the tall stool, and approach Mr.
Bross with an outstretched hand.

"If that letter's for me," he said quietly, "give it here, please."

"Special d'liv'ry--just come," announced George, holding the letter
high, out of easy reach, while he read in exultant accents the
traitorous address: "'Perceval Sybarite, Esquire, Care of Messrs.
Whigham and Wimper'! O you Perceval--Esquire!"

"Give me my letter," P. Sybarite insisted without raising his voice.

"Gawd knows _I_ don't want it," protested George. "I got no truck with
your swell friends what know your real name and write to you on
per-_fumed_ paper with monograms and everything."

He held the envelope close to his nose and sniffed in ecstasy until it
was torn rudely from his grasp.

"Here!" he cried resentfully. "Where's your manners?... Perceval!"

Dumb with impotent rage, P. Sybarite climbed back on his stool, while
George sat down at his desk, lighted a Sweet Caporal (it was after
three o'clock and both the partners were gone for the day) and with a
leer watched the bookkeeper carefully slit the envelope and withdraw
its enclosures.

Ignoring him, P. Sybarite ran his eye through the few lines of notably
careless feminine handwriting:

MY DEAR PERCEVAL,--

Mother & I had planned to take some friends to the theatre to-night
and bought a box for the Knickerbocker several weeks ago, but now
we have decided to go to Mrs. Hadley-Owen's post-Lenten masquerade
ball instead, and as none of our friends can use the tickets, I
thought possibly you might like them. They say Otis Skinner is
_wonderful_. Of course you may not care to sit in a stage box
without a dress suit, but perhaps you won't mind. If you do, maybe
you know somebody else who could go properly dressed.

Your aff'te cousin,

MAE ALYS.

The colour deepened in P. Sybarite's