know he was thinking of taking a partner into his office? He has
always refused--but that's another story, and I haven't time to talk. You
ought to be on your way here now. Tell your friend I will bless her
forever for helping me out, and I won't take no for an answer. You said
she'd just returned from abroad, didn't you? Of course she's musical. You
must make her give us some music. She will, won't she? I was depending on
Miss Mayo for that this evening."

"Well, you might be able to persuade her," murmured the distracted young
man at the 'phone, as he struggled with one hand to untie his necktie and
unfasten his collar, and mentally calculated how long it would take him to
get into his dress suit.

"Yes, of course. You'd better not speak of it--it might make her decline.
And don't let her stop to make any changes in her dress. Everybody will
understand when I tell them she's just arrived--didn't you say?--from the
other side, and we caught her on the wing. There's some one coming now.
Do, for pity's sake, hurry, Tryon, for my cook is terribly cross when I
hold up a dinner too long. Good-by. Oh, by the way, what did you say was
her name?"

"Oh--ah!" He had almost succeeded in releasing his collar, and was about
to hang up the receiver, when this new difficulty confronted him.

"Oh, yes, of course; her name--I had almost forgotten," he went on wildly,
to make time, and searched about in his mind for a name--any name--that
might help him. The telephone book lay open at the r's. He pounced upon it
and took the first name his eye caught.

"Yes--why--Remington, Miss Remington."

"Remington!" came in a delighted scream over the phone. "Not Carolyn
Remington? That would be too good luck!"

"No," he murmured distractedly; "no, not Carolyn. Why, I--ah--I
think--Mary--Mary Remington."

"Oh, I'm afraid I haven't met her, but never mind. Do hurry up, Tryon. It
is five minutes of seven. Where did you say she lives?" But the receiver
was hung up with a click, and the young man tore up t