“He’ll be giving automobiles and ropes of pearls for favors if we don’t stop him,” said “Subway” Smith, after Monty had ordered a vintage champagne to be served during the entire evening.  “Give them two glasses first, if you like, and then they won’t mind if they have cider the rest of the night.”

“Monty is plain dotty,” chimed Bragdon, “and the pace is beginning to tell on him.”

As a matter of fact the pace was beginning to tell on Brewster.  Work and worry were plainly having an effect on his health.  His color was bad, his eyes were losing their lustre, and there was a listlessness in his actions that even determined effort could not conceal from his friends.  Little fits of fever annoyed him occasionally and he admitted that he did not feel quite right.

“Something is wrong somewhere,” he said, ruefully, “and my whole system seems ready to stop work through sympathy.”

Suddenly there was a mighty check to the preparations.  Two days before the date set for the ball everything came to a standstill and the managers sank back in perplexity and consternation.  Monty Brewster was critically ill.

Appendicitis, the doctors called it, and an operation was imperative.

“Thank heaven it’s fashionable,” laughed Monty, who showed no fear of the prospect.  “How ridiculous if it had been the mumps, or if the newspapers had said, ’On account of the whooping-cough, Mr. Brewster did not attend his ball.’”

“You don’t mean to say—­the ball is off, of course,” and Harrison was really alarmed.

“Not a bit of it, Nopper,” said Monty.  “It’s what I’ve been wanting all along.  You chaps do the handshaking and I stay at home.”

There was an immediate council of war when this piece of news was announced, and the “Little Sons” were unanimous in favor of recalling the invitations and declaring the party off.  At first Monty was obdurate, but when some one suggested that he could give the ball later on, after he was well, he relented.  The opportunity to double the cost by giving two parties was not to be ignored.

“Call it off, then, but say it is only postponed.”

A great rushing to and fro resulted in the cancelling of contracts, the recalling of invitations, the settling of accounts, with the most loyal effort to save as much as possible from the wreckage.  Harrison and his associates, almost frantic with fear for Brewster’s life, managed to perform wonders in the few hours of grace.  Gardner, with rare foresight, saw that the Viennese orchestra would prove a dead loss.  He suggested the possibility of a concert tour through the country, covering several weeks, and Monty, too ill to care one way or the other, authorized him to carry out the plan if it seemed feasible.

To Monty, fearless and less disturbed than any other member of his circle, appendicitis seemed as inevitable as vaccination.

“The appendix is becoming an important feature in the Book of Life,” he once told Peggy Gray.