"Take any one," was the reply, "and then get up any thing you choose." Putnam stood alone by a window when Emily Purdy returned, and she advanced towards him. "Oh!" she said in a confidential whisper, "how do you suppose Patty could take Clarence Toxteth's suit?" "So you've spent your time discovering what she chose," he said aloud. "That was as kind of you as it was honorable." "I couldn't help noticing, could I?" she stammered, abashed. "No, probably not," he answered with quiet scorn. "Of course I shouldn't tell anybody," she continued. "But it was so strange of her!" "She took it as a blind, I presume," he said, "and means to make a new costume. Excuse me. It is my turn." With much laughter and fun the selection continued until all the dresses had been taken. Burleigh Blood confided to Flossy, that, when his turn came, the only male costume remaining was that of little Tim Bawlin, and that he had taken it. "What on earth will you do?" she asked. "I must get up something, but I am sure I don't know what." "I'd be glad to help you," she said. "If I can, that is." "Of course you can," he replied. "I shall depend upon you." As Patty left the hall, she was joined by the lawyer. "I am going to see your grandmother," he said. "This famous pension business is about settled, and I wish to tell her." "I am glad if it has at last come to something," she returned. "I doubted if it ever would." "I want to ask a favor of you," he said as they gained the street. "What is it?" "I had the misfortune," he said slowly, "to be forced to take for myself the dress Dessie Farnum wore last night. It is evident enough that I cannot wear it, and I want to change for the one you have." "What do you mean?" she asked in astonishment. "As I say." "How do you know what dress I have?" "What does that signify, since I do know?" "It signifies a great deal. I never thought you so dishonorable as to play the spy." "Do you think me so now?" "What else can I think?" she demanded hotly. "As you please: let the insult pass," he said. "The main thing is that you exchange with me." "I will not exchange with you!" "You will not?" "No." "But, Patty, just consider the talk and the scandal it will make if you wear a man's dress, to say nothing of the indelicacy." "Indelicacy! Thanks! We are quits on the score of insults." The costume Patty had chosen was an old-fashioned dress-suit, with knee-breeches and swallow-tailed coat. In selecting it, she had only considered how perfectly it would answer as a disguise, and had acted upon the impulse of the moment.