yed the organ so well and was some kind of a broker.
You remember?"

"Sure!" says I. "The one who pulled down a captain's commission at
Plattsburg. Did she have him on the string?"

"They had been friends for a long time," says Vee. "Were as good as
engaged once; though how he managed to see much of Marion I can't
imagine, with Mr. Gray so crusty toward him. You see, he didn't play
chess. Anyway, he finally gave up. I suppose he's at the front now, and
even if he ever should come back---- Well, Marion seldom mentions him.
I'm sure, though, that they thought a good deal of each other. Poor
thing! She was crazy to go across as a canteen worker. And now she
doesn't know what to do. Of course, there's always Biggles. If we could
only save her from that!"

At which remark I grows skittish. I didn't like the way she was gazin'
at me. "Ah, come, Vee!" says I. "Lay off that rescue stuff. Adoptin'
female orphans of over thirty, or matin' 'em up appropriate is way out
of my line. Suppose we pass resolutions of regret in Marion's case, and
let it ride at that?"

"At least," goes on Vee, "we can do a little something to cheer her up.
Mrs. Robert Ellins has asked her for dinner tomorrow night. Us too."

"Oh, I'll go that far," says I, "although the last I knew about the
Ellinses' kitchen squad, it's takin' a chance."

I was some little prophet, too. I expect Mrs. Robert hadn't been havin'
much worse a time with her help than most folks, but three cooks inside
of ten days was goin' some. Lots of people had been longer'n that
without any, though. But when any pot wrestler can step into a munition
works or an airplane factory and pull down her three or four dollars a
day for an eight-hour shift, what can you expect?

Answer: What we got that night at the Ellinses'. The soup had been
scorched once, but it had been cooled off nicely before it got to us.
The fish had been warmed through--barely. And the roast lamb tasted like
it had been put through an embalmin' process. But the cookin' was high
art compared to the service, for since their butler had quit to become a
crack riveter in a shipyard they've been havin' maids do their plate
jugglin'.

And this wide-built fairy, with the eyes that didn't track, sure was
constructed for anything but glidin' graceful around a dinner table.
For one thing, she had the broken-arch roll in her gait, and when she
pads in through the swing-door she's just as easy in her motion as a cow
walkin'