"There's not the least bit of danger. Nothing could make papa that!"
exclaimed Lulu rather indignantly.

"Hush, hush!" her father said, laying a finger on her lips. "Rosie does
but jest, and your father is by no means sure to be proof against the evil
effects of flattery."

"I think he is," said Rosie, "and I was only jesting, Lu; so don't take my
nonsense to heart."

"No, I will not, Rosie; I ought to have known you were but jesting, and I
beg your pardon," Lulu said, and her father smiled approvingly upon her.

"Cousin Ronald," said Walter, "can't you make some fun for us to-morrow
with your ventriloquism?"

"Oh, do, Cousin Ronald, do!" cried the girls in eager chorus.

"Well, well, bairns," returned the old gentleman good-humoredly, "I'll be
on the lookout for an opportunity for so doing without harming or
frightening anyone--unless there might be some rascal deserving of a
fright," he added with a low chuckle, as if enjoying the thought of
discomfiting such an one.

"Which I don't believe there will be," said Walter, "for everybody I saw
to-day looked the picture of good nature."

"Yes," said his mother, "and no wonder; the thought has come to me again
and again, when gazing upon the beauties of that wonderful Court of Honor,