It was an exceedingly stout young man with a round, cherubic countenance standing by the mantel who replied to her, and the old lady glanced at him sharply. "A wager? H-m! Possibly." She paused suddenly. "There's the bell." A moment later James Tarrisford Abbott, in the most immaculate of dinner clothes, entered and greeted his aunt, halting with a slight frown as he encountered the beaming face of the young man who fell upon him. "Good boy, Jimmie! You made it, after all!" "With a few hours to spare." Jim darted a questioning glance at his aunt, and seemed relieved at her emphatic shake of the head. "I knew we'd lost when Mrs. Abbott told me that you had telephoned to her from just a little way out of town to-day," Jack Trimble responded. "I ran over on my way to the club to give her a message from my mother. Did you have a hard time of it, old man?" "Hard?" Jim smiled. "I've been a rough-rider in a circus----" Mrs. Abbott groaned, but Jack Trimble's eyes opened as roundly and wide as his mouth. "Thundering--So it was you after all!" "Me?" Jim demanded with ungrammatical haste. "You--rough-rider--circus!" Jack exclaimed. "Vera said the chap looked like you, but it never occurred to me that it could possibly be!" "So it was Vera, was it?" Jim smiled. "I heard what she said--I mean, it was repeated to me. You were one of that party?" "Yes. We were with the Lentilhons in their car, and the funniest thing happened the next day on the way home! Crusty old farmer wouldn't turn out on the road, and Guy Lentilhon lost control and smashed straight through his wagon!" Jack laughed. "W-what do you think it was loaded with?" "Eggs!" responded Jim crisply. "I happened to be on it at the time, my boy, and your sense of humor--I hope you all got what I did! But I must explain to Aunt Emmy here, or she will think that we are both quite mad!" "And I must be off to the club," Jack announced. "I'll break the news to Billy Hollis that we've lost. See you later, and we'll all settle up. Good evening, Mrs. Abbott." When the stout young man had taken his departure, Mrs. Abbott turned to her nephew between laughter and tears. "James, this is the maddest of all mad things that you have ever done!" "Jack doesn't know anything about Lou?" Jim demanded anxiously. "Certainly not. He has only been here a quarter of an hour, and I kept her out of the way. But, James, you cannot be serious! You cannot mean to marry this nameless waif?" "Stop right there, Aunt Emmy," he interrupted her firmly. "I'm going to marry, if she will have me, your ward whom you have legally adopted; I mean, you will have adopted her by the time she has grown up. But I don't intend to be nosed out by any of these debutante-grabbers; I'm going to have everything settled before her studies are finished and you bring her out. I saw her first!"