Well, I had gone outside on the steps to get a mouthful of smoke, and my little cousin, Hetty, who has just come out and who is only nineteen, was out there with me because it was so warm inside, and _she_ had seen Lilly Stannard filling up with champagne at supper, and didn't know what to make of it.

Well, we were just talking about it, and I was trying to make her believe too that Lilly Stannard was sick, when here comes Lilly herself out to her carriage.

Her maid was supporting her, just about half-carrying her.

Lilly's face was so pale that the powder on it looked like ashes, her hair was all coming down, and she was hiccoughing.

Now," continued young Haight, his eyes snapping, and his voice raised so as to make itself heard above the exclamations of his two friends, "now, that's a _fact_; I give you my word of honour that it actually happened.