"A new one," repeated Cora vaguely, trying to, gather her thoughts. "Brand, spick--span new," went on Bess. "We haven't seen it, you know, but we've heard that it is a beauty." "What extravagance!" murmured Cora,--still busily thinking. "His runabout isn't very old. I wonder where he gets all his money?" "Don't you remember he said he had some to invest in the new issue of bank stock?" suggested Belle. "But the bank wouldn't let him subscribe," added her sister. "What did he do with his other car--the one that was broken in the collision?" asked Cora. "Maybe he--pawned it," suggested Belle, who had rather vague ideas concerning pawnshops. "Very likely he would if he could." This from Cora with a light laugh. "I guess Sid is very fond of a change--and excitement." She thought of her experience with him. "Even a change of girls," commented Belle. "Aula Allen told me that he and Ida were `on the outs.'" "Indeed!" and Cora raised her pretty eyebrows. "I fancied he was too--too convenient a friend for Ida to drop. But my dears, as our English teacher says, I have something more important to discuss than Ida Giles and Sidney Wilcox. I'm going to have a `doings,' as I used to call them." "Goody!" exclaimed Bess, helping herself to some more of the chocolates. "Make it a lawn party." "Well, that's just what I want you to help me with. I know that Belle will want to make it a seance with relaxed robes and collapsed masks and relapsed--" "Oh, you're mean!" exclaimed the taunted one. "I'm not such a freak as that." "Oh, no," drawled Bess. "Cer-tain-ly not," added Cora in a teasing tone. "Well, go on with your `doings,'" insisted Belle. "I won't make a single suggestion." "Not make them; but veto them," persisted Cora. "Well, then, never mind, sissy. You sometimes have splendid ideas, even if they are all sterilized." "And when they are disclosed the sterilization gets away," put in Bess. "That's what mother's nurse declared when we tried on those aprons that come in air-tight packages. But now, Cora, let's have a lawn party." "Wouldn't it be nicer to have an out-door play?" asked Belle, who had forgotten her resolution not to make a suggestion. "Oh, dear! I suppose we'll have to have it in the afternoon, when our nurses can be with us," said Bess. "We're supposed to be such kiddies--not out yet, and all that. It's detestable--" "Indeed," interrupted Cora, "mother says I may have an evening affair, and also out of doors, if I like. Since my last birthday I've been wonderfully grown up." "Out of doors! And after dark!" cried Bess. "That's great!" and she clapped her hands. "Oh, let's have it a masked affair. I never have been to one in all my life, and I'm just dying to mask!"