rs. Stanley heard he was to sing for me, and she cabled across to
him to take an earlier steamer and sing for her first. It was a little
tricky. What is it you call it in the business world, Mr. Dane?"

"A corner in Cotton," Bobby replied gravely.

Mrs. Lloyd Avalons thought she could see that the point of this joke was
directed against Mrs. Stanley, and she laughed rather more heartily than
good breeding required. In her mirth, she even bent forward in her
chair, writhing slightly to and fro, while her silken linings hissed
like angry snakes. Suddenly she realized that she had prolonged her
mirth beyond the limits of the others, and she straightened her face
abruptly.

"But I am so glad the subject has come up, Miss Dane," she went on. "I
was meaning to ask you whether you thought I could get Mr. Thayer to
sing for our Fresh Air Fund."

"Really, I have no idea of Mr. Thayer's engagements," Beatrix said
drily.

"But I thought you knew him so well."

Beatrix's face expressed her surprise.

"I know him as I know any number of people, Mrs. Avalons. That doesn't
mean that Mr. Thayer consults me in regard to his plans."

"Oh, no," Mrs. Lloyd Avalons responded vivaciously. "But couldn't you
just say a good word for us?"

"I am afraid it wouldn't count for much."

Mrs. Lloyd Avalons raised her brows and made a delicate, pushing gesture
with her outspread palms.

"You are too modest, Miss Dane. We all know your powers of persuasion,
and we are counting on you."

"Who are _we_?" Sally inquired, in flat curiosity.

"Mrs. Van Bleeker and Mrs. Knickerbocker and I. We are the committee,
this year, and we are trying to have an uncommonly good concert."

"It must be very hard for you to work on a music committee with Mrs. Van
Bleeker," Bobby suggested. "She doesn't know a fugue from a bass viol,
and she never hesitates to say so."

"Therein she differs from most unmusical people," Sally responded, in a
swift aside. "Even truthful people will fib valiantly, where music is
concerned, and go into raptures, when they have hard work to suppress
their yawns. It was a sorry day for music, when it became the fashion."

"How droll you are, Miss Van Osdel!" Mrs. Lloyd Avalons was nothing, if
not direct, in her personal comments. Then she answered Bobby. "Even if
Mrs. Van Bleeker isn't really musical, it is a delight to work with her,
she is so very charming and so business-like. Strange as it may seem, I
actually take pleasu