e Crimson Crest? Not showing the white
feather, are you?"

"Me?" says I. "Well, I don't quite get the drift of the game; but if
it'll make you feel any better, you can count me in."

"Good!" says she, clappin' her hands. "And while you are afield I must
leave too--another tea, you know. But we all meet here again at eight
sharp, with proof or plunder. Teddy, have you decided what to attempt?"

"Sure," says he. "Me to find the biggest box of candy that can be
bought in New York Sunday evening."

"Oh, splendid!" gurgles Eulalia. "And you, Mr. Westlake?"

"Orchids," says Sappy. "Grandmother has dandy ones at her place up in
Westchester, and I can make there and back in my roadster if I'm not
pinched for speeding. I'm going to have a try, and maybe I'll have to
steal the flowers too."

"There!" says Eulalia, pattin' him on the back. "That's a knightly
spirit. But what of Crimson Crest? What will you do?"

"The game is to spring something on Miss Vee better'n what the others
put over, is it?" says I.

"Precisely," says Eulalia, allowin' two of the young gents to help her
on with her wraps. "Have you thought what your offering is to be?"

"Not yet," says I. "I may take a chance on something fresh."

They was all pilin' out eager by that time, each one anxious to get
started on his own special fool stunt, so, while I was mixed up in the
gen'ral push, with my hat in my hand and my coat over my arm, it didn't
strike me how I could bolt the programme until I'm half crowded behind
the open hall door. Then I gets a swift thought. Seein' I wouldn't be
missed, and that Vee has her back to me, I simply squeezes in out of
sight and waits while she says by-by to the last one; so, when she
fin'ly shuts the door, there I am.

"Why, Torchy!" says she. "I thought you had gone."

"But it wa'n't a wish, was it?" says I.

"Humph!" says she, flashin' a teasin' glance. "Suppose I don't tell
that?"

"My nerve is strong today," says I, chuckin' my hat back on the rack;
"so I'll take the benefit of the doubt."

"But all the others have gone to--to do things that will please me,"
she adds.

"That's why I'm takin' a chance," says I, "that if I stick around I
might--well, I'm shy of grandmothers to steal orchids from, anyway."

Vee chuckles at that. "Isn't Cousin Eulalia too absurd?" says she.
"And since you're still here--why--well, let's not stand in the hall.
Come in."

"One minute," says I. "Where's Aunty