"Oh, hello!" breaks in Vee, jumpin' up and holdin' out both hands just
in the nick of time. "Why, of course, Cousin Eulalia! This is a
friend of mine, an old friend."

"Really!" says Cousin Eulalia. "And I may call him----"

"Claude," I puts in, winkin' at Vee. "Call me just Claude."

"Perfectly lovely!" gushes Eulalia. "An unknown knight. 'Deed and you
shall be called Claude--Sir Claude of the Golden Crest. Gentlemen, I
present him to you."

We looks at each other sort of sheepish, and most of us grins. All but
one, in fact. The blond string bean over in the corner, with the
buttermilk blue eyes and the white eyebrows, he don't seem amused. For
it's Sappy Westlake, the one I run on a siding once at a dance. Think
of keepin' a peeve on ice all that time!

It's quite a likely lookin' assortment on the whole, though, all
costumed elegant and showin' signs of bein' fairly well parlor broke.

"What's the occasion?" says I on the side to Miss Vee. "Reunion of
somebody's Sunday school class?"

She gives me a punch and smothers a snicker, "Don't let Cousin Eulalia
hear you say such a thing," says she.

We only had a minute; but from what she manages to whisper durin' the
general chatter I makes out that this is a little scheme Eulalia'd
planned to sort of launch Vee into the younger set. She's from