“Drive uptown,” directed Perry with fine confidence. “If you see a party, stop. Otherwise I’ll tell you when we get there.” He fell into a hazy daydream and his thoughts wandered again to Betty--he imagined vaguely that they had had a disagreement because she refused to go to the party as the back part of the camel. He was just slipping off into a chilly doze when he was wakened by the taxi-driver opening the door and shaking him by the arm. “Here we are, maybe.” Perry looked out sleepily. A striped awning led from the curb up to a spreading gray stone house, from which issued the low drummy whine of expensive jazz. He recognized the Howard Tate house. “Sure,” he said emphatically; “’at’s it! Tate’s party to-night. Sure, everybody’s goin’.” “Say,” said the individual anxiously after another look at the awning, “you sure these people ain’t gonna romp on me for comin’ here?” Perry drew himself up with dignity. “’F anybody says anything to you, just tell ’em you’re part of my costume.” The visualization of himself as a thing rather than a person seemed to reassure the individual. “All right,” he said reluctantly. Perry stepped out under the shelter of the awning and began unrolling the camel. “Let’s go,” he commanded. Several minutes later a melancholy, hungry-looking camel, emitting clouds of smoke from his mouth and from the tip of his noble hump, might have been seen crossing the threshold of the Howard Tate residence, passing a startled footman without so much as a snort, and heading directly for the main stairs that led up to the ballroom. The beast walked with a peculiar gait which varied between an uncertain lockstep and a stampede--but can best be described by the word “halting.” The camel had a halting gait--and as he walked he alternately elongated and contracted like a gigantic concertina. III The Howard Tates are, as every one who lives in Toledo knows, the most formidable people in town. Mrs. Howard Tate was a Chicago Todd before she became a Toledo Tate, and the family generally affect that conscious simplicity which has begun to be the earmark of American aristocracy. The Tates have reached the stage where they talk about pigs and farms and look at you icy-eyed if you are not amused. They have begun to prefer retainers rather than friends as dinner guests, spend a lot of money in a quiet way, and, having lost all sense of competition, are in process of growing quite dull.