whisper. "My face is afire now!
You mustn't kiss me again--until after supper----"

"Only once," he pleaded.

"If you will promise--just once----"

A moment later she gasped:

"Five times! John Aldous, I will never believe you again as long as I
live!"

They went down to the Blacktons, and Peggy and Paul, who were busy over
some growing geraniums in the dining-room window, faced about with a forced
and incongruous appearance of total oblivion to everything that had
happened. It lasted less than ten seconds. Joanne's lips quivered. Aldous
saw the two little dimples at the corners of her mouth fighting to keep
themselves out of sight--and then he looked at Peggy. Blackton could stand
it no longer, and grinned broadly.

"For goodness sake go to it, Peggy!" he laughed. "If you don't you'll
explode!"

The next moment Peggy and Joanne were in each other's arms, and the two men
were shaking hands.

"We know just how you feel," Blackton tried to explain. "We felt just like
you do, only we had to face twenty people instead of two. And you're not
hungry. I'll wager that. I'll bet you don't feel like swallowing a
mouthful. It had that peculiar effect on us, didn't it, Peggy?"

"And I--I almost choked myself," gurgled Peggy as they took their places at
the table. "There really did seem to be something thick in my throat,
Joanne, dear. I coughed and coughed and coughed before all those people
until I wanted to die right there! And I'm wondering----"

"If I'm going to choke, too?" smiled Joanne. "Indeed not, Peggy. I'm as
hungry as a bear!"

And now she did look glorious and self-possessed to Aldous as she sat
opposite him at that small round table, which was just fitted for four. He
told her so when the meal was finished, and they were following the
Blacktons into the front room. Blackton had evidently been carefully
drilled along the line of a certain scheme which Peggy had formed, for in
spite of a negative nod from her, which signified that he was to wait a
while, he pulled out his watch, and said:

"It isn't at all surprising if you people have forgotten that to-morrow is
Sunday. Peggy and I always do some Saturday-night shopping, and if you
don't mind, we'll leave you to care for the house while we go to town. We
won't be gone more than an hour."

A few minutes later, when the door had closed behind them, Aldous led
Joanne to a divan, and sat down beside her.

"I couldn't have arranged it better myself, dear,