I have never been able to make up my mind whether Mary suspected us or not. Of course we overdid the part, but it was a physical necessity. I can go without a thing altogether, but I cannot be moderate. I really thought I was not hungry until Aubrey told me not to eat, and that, of course, was enough to make any woman ravenous. If he had told me "to buck up and eat a good dinner," of course I could only have nibbled. She broke out again, and pleaded hard for us to drink our coffee, but we were obdurate. Finally we got up from the table and Mary removed the cloth, muttering to herself. I overheard some of it, but where any other cook would have been furious at us for not eating her delicious dinner, the dear old soul's rage was all directed against herself, and she was vituperating herself in language which would not have gone through the mails. But now the question was where and how to get our dinner so that Mary would not suspect. To send her to church and forage in our own ice-box was out of the question, for she knows to a dot how much there is of everything, and I cannot take an olive that she does not miss it and come and ask me if I took it, to avert suspicion from the ice-man. Furthermore, it we both went out, she might suspect. And we had taught her too heroic a lesson to go and spoil it by carelessness now. "What shall we do?" murmured my husband. "There's only one thing to do," I said, in low, even tones, with my book before my face. "Go out and buy something ready cooked,--something which leaves no trace,--something small enough to go into your overcoat pocket, but oh, in the name of heaven, get enough!" Mary came in as the outer door slammed. "Where's boss gone?" she demanded. Perhaps it was only my guilty conscience which made her tones sound suspicious. "Just over to Columbus Avenue to get a paper," I said. "Oh!" I waited in a guilty and trembling silence for the Angel to return. What if Mary should take it into her head to come and help him off with his overcoat? She often did. I softly opened the outer door. If she didn't hear him enter, all would be well. Presently he came up. He got out of the elevator stealthily, and I met him with my finger on my lip. "Aren't you going to take off your hat?" I said, as he stole down the corridor. "Can't!" he whispered. "I've got cream puffs in it." I only waited to ward off an attack from the rear. I put my head in at the butler's pantry. "Mary, I have such a headache that I am going to bed now, so be as quiet as you can, won't you?" "I'll come and open the bed for you right this instantaneous minute, my poor dear child," she said, taking her hands out of the dish-water. "No, I'll open it! I don't mind in the least," I said, eagerly. "Not at all! Do you think I'll be letting you lift your hand when you're sick?"