"But what can I do?" argued Dick, unhappily. "You know they wouldn't receive me after what I said."
Bert only laughed. "Don't you ever believe it, young man. Remember, you are something of a lion about here. Only the other day I heard Kat say that you were so clever that she did wish that you wouldn't make such a hermit of yourself, because she would like to exhibit you at one of her teas."
"And you want me to be exhibited?" glowered Dick.
"No," grinned Bert, "I only want you to appear to be of a possible disposition. Merely give her cause to hope, for this one occasion while you sound her, and then you can drop out of sight again, and no harm done. Surely you can do that much in a good cause."
"But what excuse can I make for going there?" he protested. "I can't go and just blankly call."
"All thought up," announced Bert, amiably. "You told me on the boat that you had made some study of the ruins at Pompeii. Well, Kat has Pompeii on the brain just now, as an excuse for inveigling Mrs. Walters to the other side. I told her that you had been all over the ground and were up on all of the new excavations; and she asked if I supposed that you would forgive poor little her for hurting your feelings that day on Tantalus,—said that she knew of course that I understood that it was only a silly
