hink those Copini children say? They say father's
got their father's orchestra to practice all the old sentimental music
you ever heard of--'Silver Threads Among the Gold,' and 'Do You Love Me,
Molly Darling,' and 'Lorena,' and 'Robin Adair,'--and oh," cried Mrs.
Brotherton, shaking a hopeless head, "I don't know what other silly
things."

"And yes, girls," exclaimed the youngest Miss Morton flippantly, "he's
sent around to the Music School for Miss Howe to come and sing 'O
Promise Me'!"

"The idea!" cried the new Mrs. Brotherton.

"Why, the very idea!" broke out the handsome Miss Morton, sitting by the
dining-room table.

"The idea!" echoed the youngest Miss Morton, putting away her music
roll, and adding in gasping excitement: "And that isn't the worst. He
sent word for her to sing it just after the band had finished playing
the wedding march!"

Now terror came into the house of Morton, and when the tailor's boy
brought home a package, the daughters tore it open ruthlessly, and
discovered--as they sat limply with it spread out in its pristine beauty
on the sofa before them--a white broadcloth dinner suit--with a watered
silk vest. Half an hour later, when a pleated dress shirt with pearl
buttons came, it found three daughters sitting with tight lips waiting
for their father--and six tigers' eyes glaring hungrily at the door
through which he was expected. At six o'clock, when they heard his
nimble step on the porch, they looked at one another in fear, and as he
burst into the room, each looked decisively at the other as indicating a
command to begin.

He came in enveloping them in one all-encompassing hug and cried:

"Well 'y gory, girls, you certainly are the three graces, the three
fates, and the world, the flesh and the devil all in one--what say?"

But the Morton daughters were not to be silenced. Ruth took in a deep
breath and began:

"Well, now see here, father, do you know what people are saying about--"

"Of course--I was just coming to that, Ruthie," answered the Captain.
"Amos Adams he says, 'Well, Cap,' say he, 'I was talking to Cleopatra
and she says Queen Victoria had a readin' to the effect that there was a
boy named Amos Ezra Morton Adams over on one of the stars in the
southwest corner of the milky way that would be busting into this part
of the universe in about three years, more or less'--what say?"

The old man laughed and Ruth flushed red, and ran away. The Captain saw
his suit lying o