"I never eat candy!"

"A box of hairpins," continued Jack, clumsily picking up one from the
floor, "that there aren't more than seventy-five."

"Oh, if you want me out of the way, all right!" said Olivetta,
sticking the pin into place.

"Here, is that your purse?" asked Jack, fishing an open purse from
beneath the chair Olivetta had just vacated.

"Yes, I'm always dropping it. I lost two--"

"I must say, Olivetta," put in Mrs. De Peyster reprovingly, "that you
really must not be so careless!"

Jack was looking at a card that had fallen from the purse.

"Hello! And a ticket to the exhibition of paintings of--"

"Give it to me!" And Olivetta, with suddenly crimson face, snatched
purse and card from Jack's hands. "I'll wait up in your bedroom,
Caroline, and look at your new gowns." And with a rapidity that
approached instantaneity she disappeared.

"Jack," his mother demanded suspiciously, "what was that card?"

"Just an old admission ticket to varnishing day at the spring exhibit
of the American Society of Painters," said Jack easily. And without