The next evening Mr. Blackwell appeared at dinner in a Palm Beach suit.
Mrs. Blackwell countered by ordering iced tea. They both sneezed
vigorously during the meal. "It was so warm in town to-day, I think I
caught a cold," said Mr. Blackwell.

Later Mrs. Blackwell found Belinda examining the thermometer with a
puzzled air. That night they took it down and hid it in the attic. But
the great stroke of the day was revealed when Mrs. Blackwell explained
that Mr. and Mrs. Chester, next door, had promised to carry on a similar
psychological campaign. Belinda and Mrs. Chester's cook,
Tulip--jocularly known as the Black Tulip--were friends, and would
undoubtedly compare notes. Mrs. Chester had agreed not to start her
furnace without consultation with Mrs. Blackwell.

October yielded to November. By good fortune the weather remained sunny,
but the nights were crisp. Belinda was given an oil-stove for her attic
bedroom. Mrs. Blackwell heard no more complaints of the cold, but
sometimes she and her husband could hear uneasy creakings upstairs late
at night. "I wonder if Barbados really is so warm?" she asked Bob. "I'm
sure it can't be warmer than Belinda's room. She never opens the
windows, and the oil-stove has to be filled every morning."

"Perhaps some day we can get an Eskimo maid," suggested Mr. Blackwell
drowsily. He wore his Palm Beach suit every night for dinner, but
underneath it he was panoplied in heavy flannels.

* * * * *

Through Mr. Chester the rumour of the Blackwells' experiment in
psychology spread far among suburban husbands. On the morning train less