Filled with strange apprehensions, Silverdale and Lillie hurried into the garden, where their vague alarm was exchanged for definite consternation. The millionaire was pacing the gravel-paths in the society of a strange and beautiful lady. On closer inspection, the lady turned out to be only too familiar. "Why it's Wee Winnie masquerading as a woman!" exclaimed Lord Silverdale. And so it proved--Nelly Nimrod in all the flush of her womanly beauty, her mannish attire discarded. "Why, what is this, father?" murmured Lillie. "My child," said the millionaire solemnly. "As _you_ have resolved to be an Old Maid, I--I--well I thought it only _my_ duty to marry. Even the poorest millionaire cannot shirk the responsibilities of wealth." "But father!" said Lillie in dismay. "I have changed my mind. I am going to marry Lord Silverdale." "Bless ye, my children!" said the millionaire. "You are a woman, Lillie, and it is a woman's privilege to change her mind. But I am a man and have no such privilege. I must marry all the same." "But Miss Nimrod has changed her mind, too," said Lillie, quite losing her temper. "And _she_ is not a woman." "Gently, gently," said the millionaire. "Respect your stepmother to be, if you have no respect for my future wife." "Lillie," said Miss Nimrod appealingly, "do not misjudge me. I have _not_ changed my mind." "But you said you could never marry, on the ground that while you would only marry an unconventional man, an unconventional man wouldn't want to marry you." "Well? Your father is the man I sought. He _didn't_ want to marry me," she explained frankly. "Oh," said Lillie, taken utterly aback, and regarding her father commiseratingly. "It is true," he said, laughing uneasily. "I fell in love with Wee Winnie, but now Nelly says she wants to settle down." "You ought to be grateful to me, Lillie," added Nelly, "for it was solely in the interest of the Old Maid's Club that I consented to marry your father. He was always a danger to the Club; at any moment he might have put forth autocratic authority and wound it up. So I thought that by marrying him I should be able to influence him in its favor." "No doubt you _will_ make him see the desirability of women remaining old maids," retorted Lillie unappeased. "Come, come, Lillie, be sensible!" said the millionaire. "Nelly shall give Lillie a good dinner at the Junior Widows, one of those charming dinners you and I have had there, and Lillie please send out the cards for the inaugural _soirée_. I am not going to be done out of that and nothing can now be gained by delay." "But, sir, how can we inaugurate a Club which has never had any members?" asked Silverdale. "But what does that matter? Aren't there plenty of candidates without them? Besides, nobody'll know. Each of the candidates will think the others are the members. Tell you what, boy, they shall all dance at Lillie's wedding, and we'll make that the inaugural _soirée_."