"To-night I will attend to it. I regret very much----" Wallie mumbled.
Mrs. J. Harry Stott beckoned him aside as breakfast was being placed on the table.
Mrs. Stott had a carefully cultivated mispronunciation of great elegance when she wished to be impressive, and as soon as she began Wallie realized that something portentous was about to be imparted to him. Even the way she raised her eyebrows made him warm all over with a sense of guilt of something of which he was ignorant.
"You will excuse me if I speak frankly?"
Wallie gulped, wondering fearfully what she knew and how much.
She went on in a voice which seemed to have hoarfrost on it: "But the fact is, I am not in the habit of eating with the help."
Wallie felt relief surge over him. His face cleared and he laughed light-heartedly.
"I know that, of course, Mrs. Stott, but out here it is different. Camping is particularly democratic. It has never occurred to 'Red' or Hicks that they are not welcome at the table, and I fear that they would be greatly offended if I should suggest----"
Mrs. Stott drew herself up haughtily.
"That is no concern of mine, Wallie. It is a matter of principle with me to keep servants in their places. I am not a snob, but----"
"Sh-ss-sh!" Wallie looked over his shoulder in Hicks' direction.
In clarion tones she continued: "I cannot consent to letting down the barriers even in these unconventional surroundings. You can adjust the matter to suit yourself, but I ab-so-lute-ly refuse to sit cheek by jowl with the cook and McGonnigle!"
Wallie grew solemn, as well he might, for along with the tact of a diplomat to a Balkan state it required the courage of a lion to convey the information to one of Hicks' violent disposition that he was not fit to sit at table with the wife of the rising young attorney.
It weighed on his mind through breakfast, and he was not made more comfortable by the fact that "Red," stimulated to effervescence by so large an audience, tossed off his bon-mots in a steady stream, unconscious that his wit was not a treat to all who heard him and that his presence was regarded as anything but highly desirable, while Mr. Hicks brought his tin-plate and, by chance purely, elbowed himself a place beside Mrs. Stott with the greatest assurance.
Wallie decided to postpone the delicate talk of dropping a hint to Mr. Hicks until later in the day, as he had plenty to engage his attention with Miss Mercy's departure confronting him.
"Red" denied the crime with which he was charged with a face of preternatural innocence, declaring that he was shocked that any one should attribute to him such a heinous offence as purposely leaving four sharp alder prongs under a lady's blankets. Nobody--bar none--had a greater respect for the sex than "Red" McGonnigle!