foam.

"Guests!" I roared, "not for me! Don't you dare to
say that they came to see me!"

"Did too," insists Norah, with firmness, "they came
especially to see you. Asked for you, right from the
jump."

I finished the egg-nogg in four gulps, returned the
empty tumbler with an air of decision, and sank upon the
grass.

"Tell 'em I rave. Tell 'em that I'm unconscious, and
that for weeks I have recognized no one, not even my dear
sister. Say that in my present nerve-shattered condition
I--"

"That wouldn't satisfy them," Norah calmly.
interrupts, "they know you're crazy because they saw you
out here from their second story back windows. That's
why they came. So you may as well get up and face them.
I promised them I'd bring you in. You can't go on
forever refusing to see people, and you know the Whalens
are--"

"Whalens!" I gasped. "How many of them? Not--not
the entire fiendish three?"

"All three. I left them champing with impatience."