ed somewhere near. "Where
are you stopping?" she asked with very little interest, and received an
answer that almost upset her equanimity.

"I'm staying at the Young Women's Christian Association," calmly
announced the author of "The Purple Slipper," with no sense of
embarrassment in either voice or manner. "Thank you for offering to take
me there, but Mr. Farraday is going to take Miss Lindsey and me to buy a
hat at a place which Miss Lindsey knows of. She is going to buy one,
too, now that she is going to play in our play."

"The Y. W. C. A.! Great guns!" muttered Mr. Vandeford under his breath,
while the Violet leaned back in her chair and fanned herself.

Then very suddenly Mr. Vandeford sat up and looked at Miss Mildred
Lindsey keenly for half a second.

"We'll have to go back to the office to get that check for Miss Lindsey
before we go hat-hunting," announced good Dennis, with a calmness that
made Mr. Vandeford suspect that he had met the fact of the eminent
author's abiding-place before and had got used to it. "You and Miss
Hawtry going over to the office, Van, or will you come with us, if she
has other folderols to follow in a different direction?"

"I am to see Adelaide about my costumes for 'The Purple Slipper' at
two-twenty, so must forego the pleasure of--of hat-hunting this
afternoon," Violet murmured faintly. "But I know Mr. Vandeford will
adore going with you." Miss Hawtry felt that safety lay in numbers, and
she preferred to leave the unsophistication of Miss Adair with both Mr.
Godfrey Vandeford and Mr. Dennis Farraday than with either of them
alone.

"I wish I could get out after the hat, but you people must remember that
I am putting on 'The Purple Slipper,' and I have to be about Miss
Adair's business while old Denny buzzes about hat roses, free and equal
with her," answered Mr. Vandeford. His envy, apparent in his voice, of
the care-free state of Mr. Farraday was very real, though none of the
others could guess its meaning. "I'll see all of you later. By!" and
with a sign to the head waiter, which tied tight Mr. Farraday's
purse-strings, Mr. Vandeford left them while the going was good. So
determined was his exit that Miss Hawtry could not keep him back for the
finish of the fight.

And Mr. Vandeford was in a mortal hurry. He had much to do and undo. He
arrived at his office, three squares away, slightly out of breath.

"Did you see her, Pops?" he demanded of Mr. Adolph Meyers.

"I did,