"Cornelia Van Gorder, you're going to go crazy before nightfall if
you don't take hold of yourself. What you need is lunch and a nap
in the afternoon if you can make yourself take it. You'd better
look up that revolver of yours, too, that you bought when you thought
you were going to take a trip to China. You've never fired it off
yet, but you've got to sometime today--there's no other way of
telling if it will work. You can shut your eyes when you do it--no,
you can't either--that's silly.

"Call you a spirited old lady, do they? Well, you never had a
better time to show your spirit than now!"

And Miss Van Gorder, sighing, left the living-room to reach the
kitchen just in time to calm a heated argument between Lizzie and
Billy on the relative merits of Japanese and Irish-American cooking.

Dale Ogden, taxiing up from the two o'clock train some time later,
to her surprise discovered the front door locked and rang for some
time before she could get an answer. At last, Billy appeared,
white-coated, with an inscrutable expression on his face.

"Will you take my bag, Billy--thanks. Where is Miss Van Gorder
--taking a nap?"

"No," said Billy succinctly. "She take no nap. She out in
srubbery shotting."

Dale stared at him incredulously. "Shooting, Billy?"