"'Also from time to time,' I goes on, 'you want to ask this Mr. D. little, timid, silly questions that will just tickle him to death and make him feel superior. Ask him to tell you which legs of a horse the chaps go on, and other things like that; ask him if the sash that holds the horrid old saddle on isn't so tight it's hurting your horse. After the lunch is et, go over to the horse all alone and stroke his nose and call him a dear and be found by the gent when he follows you over trying to feed the noble animal a hard-boiled egg and a couple of pickles or something. Take my word for it, he'll be over all right and have a hearty laugh at your confusion, and begin to wonder what it is about you. "'How about falling off and spraining my ankle on the way back?' demands the awakening vestal with a gleam in her eye. "'No good,' I says; 'pretty enough for a minute, but it would make trouble if you kept up the bluff, and if there's one thing a man hates more than another it's to have a woman round that makes any trouble.' "'You have me started on a strange new train of thought,' says Hetty. "'I think it's a good one,' I tells her, 'but remember there are risks. For one thing, you know how popular you have always been with all the girls. Well, after this day none of 'em will hardly speak to you because of your low-lifed, deceitful game, and the things they'll say of you--such things as only woman can say of woman!' "'I shall not count the cost,' says she firmly. 'And now I must hurry down for that sport bloose--blue-striped, you said?' "'Something on that order,' I says, 'that fits only too well. You can do almost anything you want to with your neck and arms, but remember strictly--a skirt is your one and only Non Plush Ultra.' "So I went home all flushed and eager, thinking joyously how little men--the poor dubs--ever suspect how it's put over on 'em, and the next day, which was Friday, I thought of a few more underhand things she could do. So when she run in to see me that afternoon, the excitement of the chase in her eye, she wanted I should go along on this picnic. I says yes, I will, being that excited myself and wanting to see really if I was a double-faced genius or wasn't I? Henrietta Price couldn't go on account of being still lame from her ride of a week ago, so I could go as chaperone, and anyway I knew the dear girls would all be glad to have me because I would look so different from them--like a genial old ranch foreman going out on rodeo--and the boys was always glad to see me along anyway. 'I'll be there,' I says to Hetty. 'And here--don't forget at all times to-morrow to carry this little real lace handkerchief I'm giving you.'