re represented. It is hardly
likely that the other three will send delegates, and if they should, you
have but a slim chance for kings and poets. Even Baldpate's capacity for
excitement, you see, is limited by the number of little steel keys which
open its portals to exiles from the outside world. I am reminded of the
words of the philosopher--"

"Well, Peters, old top," broke in Mr. Bland in robust tones, "isn't she
nearly off the fire?"

"Now see here," said the hermit, setting down the armful of dishes with
which he had entered the office, "I can't be hurried. I'm all upset, as
it is. I can't cook to please women--I don't pretend to. I have to take
all sorts of precautions with this lunch. Without meaning to be
impolite, but just because of a passion for cold facts, I may say that
women are faultfinding."

"I'm sure," said Miss Norton sweetly, "that I shall consider your
luncheon perfect."

"They get more faultfinding as they get older," replied Mr. Peters
ungallantly, glancing at the other woman.

Mrs. Norton glared.

"Meaning me, I suppose," she rasped. "Well, don't worry. I ain't going
to find anything wrong."

"I ain't asking the impossible," responded Mr. Peters. "I ain't asking
you not to find anything wrong. I'm just asking you not to mention it
when you do." He retired to the kitchen.

Mrs. Norton caressed her puffs lovingly.

"What that man needs," she said, "is a woman's guiding hand. He's lived
alone too long. I'd like to have charge of him for a while. Not that I
wouldn't be kind--but I'd be firm. If poor Norton was alive to-day he'd
testify that I was always kindness itself. But I insisted on his living
up to his promises. When I was a girl I was mighty popular. I had a lot
of admirers."

"No one could possibly doubt that," Mr. Magee assured her.

"Then Norton came along," she went on, rewarding Magee with a smile,
"and said he wanted to make me happy. So I thought I'd let him try. He
was a splendid man, but there's no denying that in the years we were
married he sometimes forgot what he started out to do. I always brought
him up sharp. 'Your great desire,' I told him, 'is to make me happy. I'd
keep on the job if I was you!' And he did, to the day of his death. A
perfectly lovely man, though careless in money matters. If he hadn't had
that failing I wouldn't be--"

Miss Norton, her cheeks flushed, broke in hurriedly.

"Mamma, these gentlemen can't be at all interested." Deftly she turned