"What's up, Infant?" I asked. "Have you accepted a proposal from a nice college lad?" "Huh!" and Win's head tossed. "I guess you'll open your eyes when I tell you what I have accepted!" "Tell it out, Angel Child. Relieve your own impatience." "Well, if you please, I have accepted the post of social secretary to Mrs. Randolph Schuyler." "Winifred Elizabeth Calhoun! You haven't!" "I thought I'd arouse some slight interest," she said, and she calmly went on with her dinner. I looked at Aunt Lucy, who sat with a resigned expression, toying with her unused oyster-fork. "What does she mean?" I asked. "She has done just what she says," replied Aunt Lucy. "But only for a few days. Miss Crowell--" "Let me tell!" interrupted Winnie. "It's my party! You see, Chet, Edith Crowell is wild to have the place, and is going to take it, but she can't go until the first of next week. And she doesn't want to lose the chance, so I went over and told Mrs. Schuyler about it. And then as she was simply swamped with letters and telegrams and telephones and callers, and goodness knows what all, I offered to help her out till Edith can get there. And she was so grateful--oh, I think she is a darling. I never saw anyone I liked and admired so much at first sight." "She is charming," I conceded, "but what a crazy scheme, Win! How did you persuade Aunt Lucy to agree?" "I managed her," and Winnie bobbed her wise young head, cannily. It came to me in a moment. Though not exactly a tuft hunter, Aunt Lucy was deeply impressed by real grandeur and elegance. And it came to me at once, that Winnie's tales of the great house and the aristocratic people, had a strong influence on our aunt's views and had brought about her permission for Win to go there for a few days. And it was no harm. It wasn't as if Winnie were a regular secretary, but just to hold the place for Miss Crowell, was simply a kindly deed. And so, after dinner, I settled myself in our cosy library for a comfortable smoke, and bade Winnie tell me every single thing that had happened through the day. "Oh, it was thrilling!" Winnie exclaimed. "Part of the time I was at the desk in the library, and part of the time upstairs in Mrs. Schuyler's very own room. She was so kind to me, but she is nearly distracted and I don't wonder! The undertakers' men were in and out, and those two old maids--his sisters, you know--were everlastingly appearing and disappearing. And they don't like Mrs. Schuyler an awful lot, nor she them. Oh, they're polite and all that, but you can see they're of totally different types. I like Mrs. Schuyler heaps better, but still, there's something about the old girls that's the real thing. They're Schuylers and also they're Salton-stalls, and farther back, I believe they're Cabots or something." "And Mrs. Schuyler, what is she?" I asked, as Win paused for breath.