obbed, "can't you leave Mr. Hogg out of my
luncheon. We had him last night for dinner and again this morning for
breakfast."

"Helen!" exclaimed Mrs. Burton in accents of bitter reproach.

"I just won't have him for luncheon, and with all this grapefruit in
my eye," insisted Helen, hotly.

"It must hurt terribly," sympathized Mrs. Burton's other pretty
charge, then twisted her head and looked behind her.

"What are you looking at, Sadie?" demanded Mrs. Burton, suspiciously.

Sadie turned with a start and blushed furiously. She started to
stammer a reply when the less timid cousin came to her rescue.

"Some ridiculous man was trying to flirt with us and we were both
awfully nervous. I suppose Sadie looked to see if _you_ had frightened
him off."

The blushing Sadie was amazed at her cousin's resourcefulness, and
stole a glance from under the curling fuzz of her golden bang to note
the effect produced upon her august guardian and aunt. Mrs. Burton
groped in her mind for some subtlety that might have been contained in
her niece's remark, failed at any plausible solution and then almost
vindictively returned to her original line of attack.

"Helen Burton, I must insist that you listen to me. I have broken an
engagement for the matinee with my friend, Mrs. Hobbs-Smathers of
Chicago, for the express purpose of communicating to you the contents
of Mr. Hogg's letter. He informs me, Helen, that you are treating him
scandalously; that you do not pay the slightest attention to his
letters or even answer his telegrams."

"Did he say he was getting thin--that would be charming," teased the
incorrigible Helen.

Mrs. Burton gasped and the color surged into her cheeks in two flaming
danger signals. The glance she turned upon the mischievously laughing
eyes of her niece was intended to annihilate every vestige of
frivolity. Her ample bosom struggled in its purple velvet casement.
Sadie Burton actually shook in her tiny boots as she pictured her aunt
in one of her hysterical outbursts right there in the midst of a host
of strangers who seemed to the unsophisticated miss from Omaha to
represent the very cream of New York society.

Even Helen was sobered by the gathering storm warnings. The smile left
her curving red lips and the dimples vanished. All that lingered of
her playful humor showed in the impish lights that danced in her
expressive eyes.

But she was spared the storm. A tiny page, resplendant with myriad
buttons,