some alcohol from the freshmen at the end
of the corridor; our bottle's empty. I'd do it myself, only I've
borrowed such a lot lately, and they don't know you, you see. And--oh,
Georgie, you're an obliging dear; just run down-stairs to the store and
get some sugar. I think I saw some money in that silver inkstand on
Priscilla's desk."

"We've got some sugar," objected Priscilla. "I bought a whole pound
yesterday."

"No, my lamb; we haven't got it any more. I lent it to Bonnie Connaught
last night. Just hunt around for the spoons," she added. "I think I saw
them on the bottom shelf of the bookcase, behind Kipling."

"And what, may I ask, are _you_ going to do?" inquired Priscilla.

"I?" said Patty. "Oh, I am going to sit in the arm-chair and preside."

Ten minutes later, the company being disposed about the room on
cushions, and the party well under way, it was discovered that there
were no lemons.

"Are you sure?" asked Patty, anxiously.

"Not one," said Priscilla, peering into the stein where the lemons were
kept.

"I," said Georgie, "refuse to go to the store again."

"No matter," said Patty, graciously; "we can do very well without them."
(She did not take lemon herself.) "The object of tea is not for the sake
of the tea, but for the conversation which accompanies it, and one must
not let accidents annoy him. You see, young ladies," she went on, in the
tone of an instructor giving a lecture, "though I have just spilled the
alcohol over the sugar, I appear not to notice it, but keep up an easy
flow of conversation to divert my guests. A repose of manner is above
all things to be cultivated." Patty leaned languidly back in her chair.
"To-morrow is Founder's Day," she resumed in a conversational tone. "I
wonder if many--"

"That reminds me," interrupted the Twin. "You girls needn't save any
dances for my brother. I got a letter from him this morning saying he
couldn't come."

"He hasn't broken anything, has he?" Patty asked sympathetically.

"Broken anything?"

"Ah--an arm, or a leg, or a neck. Accidents are so prevalent about
Founder's time."

"No; he was called out of town on important business."

"Important business!" Patty laughed. "Dear man! why couldn't he have
thought of something new?"

"I think myself it was just an excuse," the Twin acknowledged. "He
seemed to have an idea that he would be the only man here, and that,
alone and unaided, he would have to dance with all six hundred girls."