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 with a pulse of panic which he sought to assuage by initiating a migration of the Mettens toward the veranda.

"She will meet us outside?" inquired mamma, suspicious of some evasion.

It was a moment, Phil felt sure, to mention, as if inadvertently, that his business of five hundred thousand gross for next year had not been pledged to the Slengels.

"It does a business man good to get a good holiday, Mr. Rountree," he observed. "Always I like a little golf before making a big decision. I say to my secretary: 'Let everything wait, even the purchase contracts for next year, till I get back.' My brother Sam, he does the buying, but I must O.K. all orders over ten thousand dollars."

"Should a man like him give personal attention to such details?" mamma grandly referred the matter to Jay.

He shook his head, as he caught sight of his wife upon the stairs. At full view of the Mettens, Lida had halted. Whatever had been her anticipations, plainly they had been exceeded by the reality; but now she approached and Jay, as simply as possible, made the introductions.

Coolly and charmingly, Lida shook hands when hands were proffered and smiled and bowed when they were not. Perfectly she did it, so perfectly that mamma and Rosita, who had shaken hands, flushed with satisfaction that they had done just right and with embarrassment for papa and Ruby at their remissness; precisely contrary was papa's and Ruby's impression. Every Metten blushed, not for self, but for another of the family. Each felt personally approved, personally preferred and thrillingly uncomfortable.

It was strangely agreeable and reassuring to feel so ill