hought yet. Where do you suppose? She ought to rest."

"Rest!" Carmencita's voice was shrilly scornful. "Rest--on Christmas
eve. Besides, there isn't a spot to do it in. Every one has bundles in
it." Hands clasped, her forehead puckered in fine folds, then she
looked up. "Is--is it a nice house you live in? It's all right, isn't
it?"

"It is considered so. Why?"

"Because what's the use of waiting until to-morrow to get married? If
she'll have you you all could stop in that little church near the
Green Tea-pot and the man could marry you, and then she could go on up
to your house and rest while you finished your Christmas things, and
then you could go for her and bring her down here to help fix the
Christmas tree, and to-morrow you could have Christmas at home.
Wouldn't it be grand?" Carmencita was on tiptoe, and again her arms
were flung in the air. Poised as if for flight, her eyes were on the
ceiling. Her voice changed. "The roof of this house leaks. It ought to
be fixed."

Van Landing opened the door. "Your plan is an excellent one,
Carmencita. I like it immensely, but there's a chance that Miss
Barbour may not agree. Women have ways of their own in matters of
marriage. I do not even know that she will marry me at all."

"Then she's got mighty little sense, which isn't so, for she's got a
lot. She knows what she wants, all right, and if she likes you she
likes you, and if she don't, she don't, and she don't make out she
does. Did--did you fuss?"

"We didn't fuss." Van Landing smiled slightly. "We didn't agree about
certain things."

"Good gracious! You don't want to marry an agree-er, do you? Mrs.
Barlow's one. Everything her husband thinks, she thinks, too, and
sometimes he can't stand her another minute. Where are you going now?"

"I'm going to telephone for a taxi-cab. Then I'm going home to change
my clothes and get a hat, and then I'm going to my office to look
after some matters there; then I'm going with you to do some
shopping, and then I'm going to the Green Tea-pot to meet Miss
Barbour. If you could go with me now it would save time. Can you go?"

"If I can tell Father first. Wait for me, will you?"

Around the corner Carmencita flew, and was back as the taxi-cab
stopped at Mother McNeil's door. Getting in, she sat upright and shut
her eyes. Van Landing was saying good-by and expressing proper
appreciation and mentally making notes of other forms of expression to
be made later; and as she wait