plain, positively groaned under my
weight, perhaps mistaking me for Frieda.

Finally I reached my landing.

"He's such a dear old stick-in-the-mud," I heard. "Never happy unless
he's worrying over some lost sheep or puzzling over the way of being
kind to some one. Frieda, you ought to take him by the nape of the neck,
hale him to the Bureau of Licenses, and thence to a parson. After that
you could roll him up in cotton-batting and make him happy all his
life."

"I'm much too busy," replied Frieda, laughing, "and I don't really think
he would like it."

I took a few quick steps and the three looked up. Gordon was sitting on
the corner of the bed, looking very fine with a gardenia in his
buttonhole. Frieda's face was expanded in the fat and lovable smile it
always bears when any one speaks of her marrying. Frances just welcomed
me as usual, with a look of her wonderful eyes.

"Hello, Gordon! What's new?" I asked him, rather embarrassed.

"Nothing very much," he replied. "Thought I'd like a cup of tea."

CHAPTER XIV

I BEGIN TO PLOT

I had the mourning band taken from my silk hat, while I have worn my
frock coat so little that it looked very nicely. A new pair of gloves
and a scarf purchased for the occasion completed my war-paint for the
Van Rossum reception, as I made my way to the mansions glorifying the
eastern edge of the Park. It was a civility due to my friend and a mark
of respect I was only too glad to pay so handsome and unaffected a young
millionairess as Miss Sophia; moreover, as a second, and perhaps
unworthy, thought, I considered that a visit to such a princely
establishment might give me the atmosphere I so often needed during the
course of some of my stories. Hummingbirds, bees and novelists gladly
draw sustenance from the humblest flowers, at times, but are never
averse to the juices of scions of the horticultural nobility.

My hat and coat were seized upon in an anteroom, after I had deposited
my card in a great chased receptacle, and I made my way up the wide
staircase, softly carpeted in crimson and adorned at the sides with
balusters of ancient, black, carved oak. The great hallway I had just
left gave an impression of respectable age, like a neat and primped up
old gentleman still able to wear a flower in his buttonhole. There were
just enough ancient cavaliers looking from the walls to afford, with two
shining suits of armor, a suggestion that the Van Rossums were reaping
the ju