"Don't be flippant, Sam," she said with dignity. "You know perfectly well what I mean. If Mr. Hickey _should_ fall in love with Evelyn--and I will say that she never looked more attractive than she does now--and if she should----" He interrupted her with a hasty kiss. "I've got to go up and dress," he reminded her. "Don't you worry, Betty; if he should, and she should, then they both would; and all you and I would be required to do would be to buy them a clock that wouldn't go, or a dozen _pâté de foies gras_ implements--only let it be something useful. By the way, I see you've set the table for the children. Do you think that is--er--exactly the part of wisdom?" "No, Sam; I do not. But I had to make it up to Richard someway, so I promised to let him have dinner with us, and Evelyn quite insisted upon the others. She thinks Carroll simply perfect, and she says Doris is the most fascinating child she ever saw." "Well," he acquiesced, "they're the biggest and best half of the Brewster family, when you come to think of it, and Hickey always wants to see them when he comes." Half an hour later Elizabeth was putting the finishing touches to her toilet, while the children, immaculate and shining, hovered admiringly about the dressing-table. "Now remember, Carroll, you mustn't get to quarrelling with Doris about anything." "I won't, mother; I promise." "We're going to have ice-cream for dessert, and----" "Oh-e-e!" in a rapturous chorus from all the children. "I don't want you to make that noise when Celia brings it in to the table; that's why I'm telling you beforehand." Richard was pirouetting heavily on his little stubbed shoes. "Oh-e-e!" he repeated, "ice-cweam!" "Now, do you think you can remember?" asked Elizabeth, clasping a string of gold beads about her pretty throat, and turning to meet the three pairs of upturned eyes. "I want Aunty Evelyn to think you've improved a great deal since the last time she was here. You weren't very good that time." Carroll's clear gaze met his mother's reprovingly. "Do you want Aunty Evelyn to think we've improved, if we haven't?" he asked. "Because we're really getting badder most every day." "You're badder, you mean," said Doris, with a superior and pitying smile; "I'm as good 's I can be. Mrs. Van Duser said I was a very inter-est-in' 'zample of a child. So there!" Carroll shook his head. "I'm not going to quarrel with you, Doris, 'cause I promised mother I wouldn't," he said with dignity; "but we are badder--'specially you; you didn't mind mother three times to-day." "I am not badder." "I said I wouldn't quarrel, Doris; but you are--very much badder." "Hush, children!" exclaimed Elizabeth, hurriedly intervening between the militant pair. "Come right down stairs, and don't talk to each other at all unless you can be pleasant and polite."