On a certain evening about four months later Ellis and Vandover had a "date" with Ida Wade and Bessie Laguna at the Mechanics' Fair.

Ellis, Bessie, and Ida were to meet Vandover there in the Art Gallery, as he had to make a call with his father, and could not get there until half-past nine.

They were all to walk about the Fair until ten, after which the two men proposed to take the girls out to the Cliff House in separate coupes.

The whole thing had been arranged by Ellis and Bessie, and Vandover was irritated.

Ellis ought to have had more sense; rushing the girls was all very well, but everybody went to the Mechanics' Fair, and he didn't like to have nice girls like Turner or Henrietta Vance see him with chippies like that.