had been celebrated; nor had he ever helped, so far as he
could recollect, to celebrate the birthday of any child. Yes, Masie
should have her birthday, if he could bring it about, and it should be
the happiest of all her life.

Suddenly he rose, releasing his neck from her grasp, and ran his eyes
around the almost bare interior--the big chair being the only article,
so far, in place. "It will make a grand banquet hall, Masie," he said,
as if speaking more to himself than to her. "Let me see!" He walked
half the length of the floor and began studying the walls and the bare
rafters of the ceiling. These last had once been yellow-washed, age and
dust having turned the kalsomine to an old-gold tint, reminding him of a
ceiling belonging to a Venetian palace.

"Yes," he continued, with the same abstracted air, his head upturned,
"there's a good place for hanging a big lamp, if there is one in the new
lot, and there are spots where I can hang twenty or more smaller ones.
I will cover the side walls with stuffs and embroideries and put those
long Italian settees against--yes, Tweety-kins, it will come out all
right. It will make a splendid banquet hall! And after the party we will
leave it just so. Fine, my child! And I have an idea, too--a brilliant
idea. Hans, ask Mr. Kling to be good enough to come up here!"

With the surrender of her Uncle Felix, Masie resumed her spinning around
the room and kept it up until the father's bald head showed clear above
the top of the stairs.

"Masie has had one brilliant idea, Mr. Kling, and I have another. I will
tell you mine first." It was wonderful how thoroughly he understood the
Dutchman.

"Vell, vot is it?" Otto had sniffed something unusual in the atmosphere
and was on the defensive. When there was only one to deal with he
sometimes had his way; never when they were leagued together.

"I propose," continued O'Day, "to turn this whole floor into the sort
of a room one could live in--like many of the great halls I have seen
abroad--and I think we have enough material to make a success of it,
plenty of space in which to put everything where it belongs. Leave that
big chair where I have placed it, throw some rugs on the floor, nail the
stuffs and tapestries to the walls, fasten the brackets and sconces and
appliques on top of them, filled with candles, and hang the lanterns and
church lamps to the rafters. When I finish with it, you will have a room
to which your customers will flo