"I haven't seen him for several days, not since the night of my
dinner," she admitted; "I've been lazy, sending my work down to the
office. But I will see him right away."

"He's the one really to have ideas," Mrs. Brown assured her.




CHAPTER XII

So Barry was invited up to the Hall to dinner, and found himself so
instantly swept into the plan that he had no time to be self-
conscious. Dinner was served on the side porch, and the sunlight
filtered across the white cloth, and turned the garden into a place
of enchantment. When Billy and the small girls had seized two
cookies and two peaches apiece, and retired to the lawn to enjoy
them, he and Sidney sat talking on in the pleasant dusk.

"You've asked eight, so far," he said, as she was departing for the
office an hour or so after dinner was finished, "but do you think
that's all?"

"Oh, it positively must be!" Sidney said virtuously, but there was a
wicked gleam in her eye that prepared him for her sudden descent
upon the office two days later, with the startling news that now she
had positively STOPPED, but fourteen children had been asked!

Barry, rather to her surprise, remained calm.