d you ever hear anything so batty?" says I.

"Why, I think it's perfectly splendid fun," says Vee. "Just think,
Torchy, you can do anything you choose!"

"It's the choosin' that's goin' to bother me," says I. "I'm no
matrimonial stage manager. I don't even know where to pull the thing
off."

"I've thought of just the place," says she. "Harbor Hill, the Vernon
Markleys' place out on Long Island. They're in the mountains now, you
know, and the house is closed; but----"

"You ain't thinkin' of borrowin' their garage for this, are you?" says
I.

"Silly!" says she. "Mrs. Markley's open-air Greek theater! You must have
seen pictures of it. It's a dream--white cement pergolas covered with
woodbine and pink ramblers, and a wonderful stretch of lawn in front. It
would be an ideal setting. She's a great friend of Aunty's. We'll just
wire for her permission; shall we?"

"Listens good," says I. "But we got to get busy. Tuesday, you know. What
about eats, though?"

"There's a country club only half a mile away," says she.

"You're some grand little planner," says I. "Now let me go plot out how
to put the tra-la-la business into the proceedin's."

I had a hunch that part would come easy, too; but after a couple of
hours' steady thinkin' I decided that as a joy producer I'd been
overrated. The best I could dig out was to hunt up some music, and by
Monday noon that was my total contribution. I'd hired a band. It's some
band, though--one of these fifteen-piece dance-hall combinations that
had just closed a Coney Island engagement and was guaranteed to tear off
this affair in zippy style. I left word what station they was to get off
at, and 'phoned for a couple of jitneys to meet 'em. For the rest, I was
bankin' on my luck.

And right on schedule we makes a nine-thirty getaway--three machines in
all; for, while Marjorie had thrown seventeen cat fits when she first
heard that Brother Robert had renigged, she shows up with Ferdie at the
last minute. Catch her missin' out on any kind of a weddin'!

"But just where, Robert," she demands, "is this absurd affair to take
place?"

"Haven't the least idea," says he. "Ask Torchy."

So I names the spot, gives the chauffeurs their route directions, and
off we booms across the College Point ferry and out towards the far end
of the north shore. The Reverend Percy turns out to be kind of a solemn,
serious-minded gink. Seems he'd been in college with Mr. Robert, had
rooms just across th