ded their way
among the tables.

So this was the "pretty little mustard girl" that all fashionable New York
had talked about in the past and was dancing with in the present. This was
the girl who refused to go to the dogs at the earnest behest of the
redoubtable Mrs. Tresslyn. Somehow he felt that Fate had provided him with
an unexpected pal!

And, to his utter astonishment, he was prevailed upon to perform the
operation! The Fenns and Simeon Dodge decided the matter for him.

"I shall have to give up sailing next week," he said, as pleased as Punch
but contriving to project a wry face. "I can't go away and leave my first
bona-fide patient until she is entirely out of the woods."

"I have engagements for to-morrow and Wednesday," said Mrs. Rumsey Fenn,
after reflection. She was a rather pallid woman of thirty-five who might
have been accused of being bored with life if she had not made so many
successful efforts to prolong it.

"It doesn't happen to be your appendix, my dear," said her husband.

"Goodness, I wish it were," said she, regretfully. "What I mean is that I
can't go to the hospital with Lutie before,--let me see,--before Thursday.
Can you wait that long, dear?"

"Ask Dr. Thorpe," said young Mrs. Tresslyn. "He is my doctor, you know."

"Of course, you all understand that I cannot go ahead and perform an
operation without first determining--"

"Don't you worry," said the patient. "My physician has been after me for a
year to have it out. He'll back me up. I'll telephone him as soon as I get
back home, and I'll have him call you up, Dr. Thorpe. Thanks ever so much.
And, before I forget it, what is the fee to be? You see, I pay my own
bills, so I've got to know the--the worst."

"My fee will be even more reasonable than you hope, Mrs. Tresslyn," said
Braden, smiling. "Just guess at the amount you'd feel able to pay and then
divide it by two, and you'll have it."

"Dear me," cried Mrs. Fenn, "how perfectly satisfactory! Rumsey, you
_must_ have yours out this week. You're always talking about not being
able to afford things, and here's a chance to save money in a way you
never would have suspected."

"Good Lord, Madge," exclaimed her husband, "I've never had a pain in my
life. I wish you wouldn't keep nagging at me all the time to have an
operation performed, whether I need it or not. Let my appendix alone. It's
always treated me with extreme loyalty and respect, so why the deuce
should I turn upon th