to my Aunt Harriet to see if she knows of another maid...."

"Whatever... whatever could have made them _think_ of such a thing!"
gasped Betty, almost beyond words.

"I did!" said Penfield Evans, tapping himself on the chest. "It was _my_
giant intelligence that propelled them here."

He was conscious of a lacy rush upon him, and of a couple of soft arms
which gave him an impassioned embrace none the less vigorous because
the arms were more used to tennis-racquets and canoe-paddles than
impassioned embraces. Then he was thrust back... and there was Betty,
collapsed against a lilac bush, shaking and convulsed, one hand
pressed hard on her mouth to keep back the shrieks of merriment which
continually escaped in suppressed squeals, the other hand outstretched
to ward him off....

"No, don't you touch me, I didn't mean a thing by it! I just couldn't
help it! It's too, _too_ rich! Oh Penny, you duck! Oh, I shall die! I
shall die! I never saw anything so funny in my life! Oh, Penny, take me
away or I shall perish here and now!"

On the whole, in spite of the repulsing hand, he took it that he had
advanced his cause. He broke into a laugh, more light-hearted than he
had uttered for a long time. They stood for a moment more in the soft
darkness, gazing in with rapt eyes at the family scene. Then they
reeled away up the street, gasping and choking with mirth, festooning
themselves about trees for support when their legs gave way under them.

"_Did_ you see George's face when Emelene let the cat eat out of her
plate!" cried Betty.

"And did you see Genevieve's when Mrs. Brewster-Smith had the dessert
set down in front of her to serve!"

"How about little Eleanor upsetting the glass of milk on George's
trousers!"

"Oh _poor_ old George! Did you ever see such gloom!"

Thus bubbling, they came again to Betty's home with the door still open
from which she had lately emerged. There Betty fell suddenly silent,
all the laughter gone from her face. The man peered in the dusk,
apprehensive. What had gone wrong, now, after all?

"Do you know, Penny, we're pigs!" she said suddenly, with energy. "We're
hateful, abominable pigs!"

He glared at her and clutched his hair.

"Didn't you see Emelene Brand's face? I can't get it out of my mind! It
makes me sick, it was so happy and peaceful and befooled! Poor old
dear! She _believes_ all that! And she's the only one who does! And its
beastly in us to make a joke of it! She has wante