They debated this at length. He insisted that he would be able to contribute nothing to the affair; that it was his lack of ideas which had caused him to appeal to her for help, and that it would be best for him to act the role of interested spectator. “I’m sorry, but your objections don’t impress me, Mr. Farrington. If you’re not in the game you won’t be able to watch it in all its details. So down you go!” For a moment she pondered, with a wrinkling of her pretty brows, the memorandum before her; then she closed the book and dropped it into her sweater pocket. He was immensely interested in her next step, wondering whether she really meant to bring together the widely scattered and unrelated people she had selected for parts in the drama that was to be enacted for his benefit. She rose so quickly that he was startled, gave a boyish tug at her hat--there was something rather boyish about her in spite of her girlishness--and said with an air of determination: “How would Thursday strike you for the first rehearsal? Very well, then. There may be some difficulty in reaching all of them by telegraph; but that’s my trouble. Just where to hold the meeting is a delicate question. We should have”--she bent her head for an instant--“an empty house with large grounds; somewhere in these hills there must be such a place. You know the country better than I. Maybe----” “To give a house party without the owner’s knowledge or consent is going pretty far; there might be legal complications,” he suggested seriously. “Timidity doesn’t go in the adventurous life. And besides,” she added calmly, “that matter doesn’t concern us in the least. If they all get arrested it’s so much the better for the plot. We can’t hope for anything as grand as that!” “But how about you! What if you should be discovered and go to jail! Imagine my feelings!” “Oh, you’re not to worry about me. That’s my professional risk.” “Then, as to the place, what objection is there to choosing Senator Banning’s house? He’s in the cast anyhow. His place, I believe, hasn’t been occupied for a couple of years. The gates were nailed up the last time I passed there.” She laughed at this suggestion rather more merrily than she had laughed before. “That’s a capital idea! Particularly as we’ve chosen him for his lack of humor!” “If he has any fun in him he’ll have a chance to show it,” said Farrington, “when he finds his house filled with people he never saw before.”