Mr. Thayer laughed appreciatively. “I understand that perfectly. There’s everything in being in the right mood for things. Now to-night I’m hot on the trail of a Christmas party. I was over in my office directing invitations—they like to get formal invitations, you know—when it suddenly struck me that if I had a regulation Christmas party it would naturally be a regulation failure, like the others I’ve tried. So I racked my brains for something extraordinary, and nothing came. Then I looked over here and thought of all the extraordinary things you’ve planned, and here I am to place an order for one extraordinary party, with food, all guaranteed to please three hundred assorted factory hands.”
Betty stared at him in amazement. “I don’t understand——” she began.
Young-Man-Over-the-Fence smiled his merry, reassuring smile. “As your tea-shop is to the regulation kind of tea-shop, so is the Christmas party I want to the regular thing. I want it to look something like this room, to be—well——”
“Stunty,” supplied Betty quickly.
“Stunty—that’s a new one on me, but if it describes all this——” He waved his hand comprehensively at the fire, at a grinning gargoyle with its hanging lantern, and across to the dusky line of stalls.
“Features, Madeline calls the queer little touches,” Betty broke in again. “I understand what you want. You want a party in Harding style,—that will go off the way the spreads and Hallowe’en things and freshmen frolics do. Madeline could think up something lovely. But I don’t see—how did you happen to come to us?”
“Because I felt sure you could get me what I wanted.”
“But we don’t do things like that,” Betty objected.
“Then you ought to,” he told her. “There’s a field for it.” He laughed merrily. “I’m the field. And—I dislike to mention anything so sordid, but it pays very well, much better than tea and candle-shades, I’m sure. In London once I remember my sister paid twenty pounds to a firm for planning her a cotillion. I’d thought that would be about right for this party.”
“Twenty pounds—why, that’s a hundred dollars!” cried Betty incredulously.