all be done. Perhaps this evening, after these
tiresome men have gone, you will give me a few minutes. In the meantime,
just let me say that I was angry at you, however wrongly, when I came
down--"

"I'm not sure but that I'm still angry at _you_," said the cook, but she
smiled as she said it.

"You have every right to be, and no reason," he returned. "And you are
going to be an angel and serve dinner, aren't you?"

"I said I would if asked politely."

"Though how in the world I shall sit still and let you wait on me, I
don't see."

"Oh," said Jane-Ellen, "if you never have anything harder to do than
that, you are very different from most of your sex. And now," she added,
"I'd better run upstairs and put two more places at the table, for it's
dinner-time already."

"If I come back later in the evening, you won't turn me out of the
kitchen?"

She was already on her way upstairs, but she turned with a smile.

"It's your kitchen, sir," she said.

Crane followed her slowly. It occurred to him that he must have a talk
with Lefferts. He found him and Tucker making rather heavy weather of
conversation in the drawing-room. Tucker had naturally enough determined
to adopt Mrs. Falkener's views of Lefferts. He had conformed with
Crane's request and given the poet a cigarette and a cocktail, but he
had attempted no explanation beyond an unsatisfactory statement that the
ladies had been called away unexpectedly.

"Nothing serious, I hope," Lefferts had said.

"I hope not," Tucker had returned, and not another word would he utter
on the subject.

Lefferts was, therefore, glad to respond to Crane's invitation to come
into the office for a few minutes and leave Tucker to the contemplation
of his own loyalty.

Left alone, Tucker's eager ears soon detected the sound of dishes in the
dining-room, and he knew that this could be produced by the hand of no
other than Jane-Ellen. The moment seemed to have been especially
designed for his purpose, and he decided to take advantage of it.

Jane-Ellen was setting the table with far more energy than Smithfield
had displayed; in fact her task was almost finished when Tucker entered,
and, advancing to the mantelpiece, leaned his elbow on the shelf and
smiled down upon her benevolently.

"The time has come sooner than we anticipated when I can be of
assistance to you, Jane-Ellen," he said.

"Yes, indeed, sir," she returned with a promptness that fifteen years
before would have m