“I had business in Lesterville with Wilson,” he said, “and when I heard you and your sister were coming over, I seized the opportunity to make it a party—my party, if you please.”

Aunt Lois was very red-faced and gave Mama a deep look that was evidently meant to say volumes.

“Sweeney took charge of everything when he found you were coming,” Mr. Wilson laughingly told Aunt Lois. “He says supper at the Chinatown, then out to Luna Park to see the Gaiety Revue.”

Mama looked helplessly at her sister, and then at Marcia who was unable to conceal her rapture at Mr. Wilson’s words and elegant manners.

“Isn’t the Chinatown a little—I mean—” stammered Mama.

“I have been looking forward to such an opportunity as this for a long time,” Mr. Sweeney said, fixing a look of worshipful admiration on Aunt Lois. “It is most opportune, most opportune, indeed.”

It was clear that Aunt Lois’s silence and rising blushes were not due to coquetry but to mounting indignation. Would the gentlemen excuse them for a moment, she asked ominously? Marcia found herself hustled out to the Ladies’ Parlor where a serious conference was held.

“You stay, Lois,” Mama said earnestly. “I had no idea it would be like this. Marcia and I will take the car back. If I’d realized it was to be a party of four—oh, Harry wouldn’t like it at all! No, I can’t stay, I just can’t.”

Aunt Lois said testily that she had no intention of staying either. She did not think it was any of Harry’s business if his wife wanted to have a bit of innocent pleasure, but what made her so mad she could spit was that old goat Mr. Sweeney butting in.

“Ma told him I’d be here, I just know it,” she declared angrily. “I’ll bet a million dollars she planned the whole thing, she’s so set on him. I can’t stand him. He’d spoil any party. I wouldn’t go with him if he was the last man on earth. I could kill him right now. It’s not Walter’s fault, of course, but wouldn’t you think he could have done something to keep Mr. Sweeney off?”

Mama said she thought Walter Wilson looked awfully fast, and that for her part she’d trust Mr. Sweeney a great deal more than she would Mr. Wilson, but she simply couldn’t stay another minute on account of Harry. Going with her sister and a friend to a show was one thing, but a foursome! Lois tartly replied, running a chamois over her crimson face, that Mama was acting like a fool, and that Walter Wilson was a perfect gentleman which was more than Harry Willard would ever be. Mama said haughtily that would be quite enough, thank you, and she would take Marcia away at once, if Lois would calm down enough to explain that Marcia had been taken sick. Aunt Lois put on her plumed black hat at a more dashing angle over her curly blond hair, but this was not for purposes of allure but a gesture of warfare. They stalked back to the gentlemen who appeared to sense some cloud on the horizon for they looked apprehensive. Mama explained that her little girl had suffered a bad stomach spell, and she’d have to take her home at once. Mr. Wilson hoped Aunt Lois could stay, but Aunt Lois said stiffly that she must help her sister. In this awkward conversation, Marcia felt the need for a tactful word from her, and as she was being pulled away she managed to smile reassuringly at Mr. Wilson and say, “Of course I’m not really sick.”