e qua non_ of fashion!

He found a wrapper in the hall closet and opening the door cautiously
peered into the hall. An uncle and an older brother of Snorky's were on
the same floor, but he had not been introduced and his courage failed
him. He returned to his room and contemplated the white bed spread, the
pillow slips and the muslin curtains in a wild hope that something might
lend itself to an improvisation. Then he shook his head mournfully.
There was only one way out. To appear properly dressed in this, a
strange house, before strangers, he would have to commit a crime! The
only way to get a white tie was to steal one. At this moment while his
whole moral future turned on an impulse, a door down the hall opened
and Skippy, peering forth, beheld an elderly gentleman, immaculately
dressed, descend the stairs. For a short moment he hesitated but atavism
and necessity were against him. He stole out into the hall and made his
way on tiptoe. All at once he heard a step ascending the stairs. A
bathroom door was open. He sprang into it with a thumping heart and
waited breathlessly, leaning limply against the wall. All at once his
eye fell on the clothes basket. From the top a crumpled white tie was
hanging. He was saved!

He seized the tie and head erect, honor intact, walked fearlessly back
to his room. But there, a new dilemma! The tie was indeed of whitest
lawn but, alas! across one end was a smudge which defied the most
persistent rubbing. Skippy, as has been observed, was at the period when
the imagination is not confined by tradition. In desperation he resorted
to the washbasin and with the aid of a brush, triumphantly banished the
damned spot. Then having wrung the limp mass, he spread the tie
carefully against the window pane and covering it with a handkerchief,
laboriously ironed it out with a shoe.

Just as the clock struck half past seven, Mr. John C. Bedelle descended
the last stairs and greeted a critical world. Beads of perspiration
stood on his forehead, his spine seemed made of rubber, his knees shook
and his restless, chilly hands loomed before him, homeless and lost; but
he was safe at last in all the intricacies of a dress suit--a man of
fashion among men of the world!

Snorky was standing miserably by the fireplace, his large peppermint
ears flanking a heated face, as he defiantly faced the family hilarity.
Then Skippy's superb aplomb failed him. Just beyond the smirking family,
among the early guest