else. And it occurred to me that the best thing we could do was to have dinner on horseback in the stables.'
He paused a moment.
' Well, that dinner was a success,' he said. ' I say it was a success, and I'm modest too. I had fifty tables made, fitting on to the horses' shoulders, and we all sat on horseback, and ate our dinners in the new stables. Fifty of us in a big circle with the horses' heads pointing inwards, and simultaneously the horses ate their dinner out of a big circular manger. And that dinner has been talked about for a week, and it'll be talked about till next week. Next week Mrs. Palmer gives a party, and my dinner will be as forgotten as what Adam and Eve had for tea when they were turned out of Paradise.'
' No, don't tell them,' screamed Mrs. Palmer. ' Reginald, if you tell them, I shall never forgive you.'
' Please don't, then, Mr. Armstrong,' said Sybil. ' I should hate it if you were never forgiven. Besides, I like surprises. I should have loved your dinner; I think it was too unkind of you to have given it before I came. Or else it is unkind of you to have told me about it now that it is over.'
She laughed with genuine amusement.
' Bertie, is it not heavenly?' she said. ' We think of that sort of thing sometimes in England. Do you remember the paper ball? But we so seldom do it. And did it all go beautifully? Did not half fall off their horses?'
' Well, Mrs. Palmer's husband, Lewis S., he wouldn't get on a real horse,' he said. ' He said that he was endangering too many shareholders. So I got a wooden horse for him, and had it covered with gold-leaf.'
' Lewis on a rocking-horse!' screamed his wife. ' I died—I just died!'
' Luckily, she had a resurrection,' said Mr. Armstrong;
