He was his gay self again, and bore them away with him on the wave of his boyish spirits.  Across the lawn and into the house they went, the six, and were conducted into the living-room and bidden settle down around the fireplace.

“Start a fire, Jim, and get a bed of cannel going with a roar.  You’ll find the stuff in that willow basket.  Open all the windows, Ches.  Then all make yourselves comfortable and await my operations.  I promise you a treat—­from my point of view.”

And he rushed away.

“It’s my private opinion,” growled Macauley, beginning sulkily to lay the fire, “that that fellow is off his head.  He always did seem a trifle cracked, and to-night he’s certainly dippy.  What’s he going to do with a fire, at 11 P.M., on a May evening, I’d like to know?”

“Whatever it is, it will be refreshing.”  Winifred Chester, reckless of her delicate blue evening gown, curled herself up in a corner of the big davenport and laid her head luxuriously down among the pillows.  “Oh, I’m so tired,” she sighed.  “Seems to me I never heard so many stupid things said, in one evening, in my life.”

Arthur Chester, having thrown every window wide—­though he discreetly drew the curtains over those which faced the street—­sat down in a great winged chair of comfortable cushioning, and stretched his legs in front of him as far as they would go, his arms clasped behind his head.  He also drew a deep sigh of content.

“I don’t recall,” said he, wearily, “that I have sat down once during the entire evening.”

“How ridiculous!” cried Martha Macauley, bristling.  “If you didn’t, it was your own fault.  I took away hardly any chairs, and I arranged several splendid corners just on purpose for those who wished to sit.”

“As there were a couple of hundred people, and not over a couple of dozen chairs—­” began Chester, dryly.

But Martha interrupted him.  “I never saw such a set.  Just as if you hadn’t been going to affairs like this one all your lives,—­and Ellen, especially, must have been at hundreds of them in Washington,—­and now you’re all disgusted with having to bear up under just one little informal—­”

“Cheer up, my children,” called Burns, reentering.  He was garbed in white, which his guests saw after a moment to be a freshly laundered surgical gown, covering him from head to foot, the sleeves reaching only to his elbows, beneath which his bare arms gleamed sturdily.  He bore a wire broiler in one hand, and a platter of something in the other, and his face wore an expression of content.

“Beefsteak, by all that’s crazy!” shouted James Macauley, eying the generous expanse of raw meat upon the platter with undisguised delight.  He forgot his sulkiness in an instant, and slapped his friend upon the back with a resounding blow.  “Bully for Red!” he cried.

“Well, well!  Of all the wild ideas!” murmured Arthur Chester.  But he sat up in his chair, and his expression grew definitely more cheerful.