CHAPTER XVII

IN WHICH THE STRAW SAILOR HAT OF JOHNNY PLAYS AN EMBARRASSING ROLE




"My dear," observed Mr. Courtney as he and his wife approached the
jessamine summer-house," do you pick your week-end guests from a
city directory or do you draw the names from a hat?" Constance Joy,
sitting in the summer-house with Johnny Gamble, rose and laughed
lightly as a warning.

"My dear," retorted Mrs. Courtney very sweetly indeed and all
unheeding of the laugh, "I pick them by a better system than you
employ when you invite stag parties. You usually need to be
introduced to your guests. Just whom would you like to have me send
home?"

"Paul Gresham for one," replied Courtney bluntly, "and the entire
Wobbles tribe, with their friend Birchard, for some more."

"I could be perfectly happy without them myself, Ben," sighed his
wife, "but the Wobbles bachelors invite themselves whenever they
please, and Paul Gresham was asked on account of Constance."