"You look hipped," his friend said anxiously. "Better go get a bracer;
you’ll have time if you hurry. You can’t be sick before dinner, because
I’ve been moving all the cards around so as to get Betty next to you, and
I could never get them back as they were before if you gave out at the
last minute."

"I don’t believe I’m ill," said Jack, trying to realize whether the news
that she was to be his (for dinner) made him feel any better or only just
about the same. "I don’t know what ails me. Do I look seedy?"

"You look sort of knocked out, that’s all," said Burnett. "Perhaps,
though, it was just the having to talk to my cousin Maude so long. Isn’t
she the limit, though? But I’ll tell you the one big thing about that
girl: She’s just the biggest kind of a catch. She was my uncle’s eldest
child; she’s worth twelve times what any of us ever will be."

"I’m sure she’ll need it," said Jack heartily.

"You’re right there," laughed his friend; "but you’ve got to hurry and get
your brandy now if you want it, because they’ll be going out in a minute."

"Oh, I’m all right," said the poor chap, straightening his shoulders back
a little. "I can make out well enough, I’m sure. I think I’d better go
over by your sister and let her know that I’m ready when the hour of need
shall strike."

Burnet nodded and then he went on and his friend walked down the room, no
one but himself knowing that he was making his way into the lion’s (or,
rather, lioness’s) den.