The reason the Club decided to have the Brain Barbecue at the Beadle Home was that the Beadles had such beautiful big Rooms and Double Doors.  There was more or less quiet Harpoon Work when the Announcement was made.  Several of the Elderly Ones said that Josephine Beadle was not a Representative Member of the Club.  She was Fair to look upon, but she was not pulling very hard for the Uplifting of the Sex.  It was suspected that she came to the Meetings just to Kill Time and see what the Others were Wearing.  She refused to buckle down to Literary Work, for she was a good deal more interested in the Bachelors who filled the Windows of the new Men’s Club than she was in the Butler who wrote “Hudibras.”  So why should she have the Honor of entertaining the Club at the Annual Meeting?  Unfortunately, the Members who had the most Doing under their Bonnets were not the ones who could come to the Front with large Rooms that could be Thrown together, so the Beadle Home got the Great Event.

[Illustration:  THE MEN]

Every one in Town who carried a Pound of Social Influence showed up in his or her Other Clothes.  Extra Chairs had to be brought in, and what with the Smilax and Club Colors it was very Swell, and the Maiden in the Lace Mitts who was going to write about it for the Weekly threw a couple of Spasms.

The Men were led in pulling at the Halters and with their Ears laid back.  After they got into the Dressing Room they Stuck there until they had to be Shooed out.  They did not know what they were going against, but they had their Suspicions.  They managed to get Rear Seats or stand along the Wall so that they could execute the Quiet Sneak if Things got too Literary.  The Women were too Flushed and Proud to Notice.

At 8:30 P.M. the Lady President stood out and began to read a few Pink Thoughts on “Woman’s Destiny—­Why Not?” Along toward 9:15, about the time the Lady President was beginning to show up Good and Earnest, Josephine Beadle, who was Circulating around on the Outskirts of the Throng to make sure that everybody was Happy, made a Discovery.  She noticed that the Men standing along the Wall and in the Doorways were not more than sixty per cent En Rapport with the Long Piece about Woman’s Destiny.  Now Josephine was right there to see that Everybody had a Nice Time, and she did not like to see the Prominent Business Men of the Town dying of Thirst or Leg Cramp or anything like that, so she gave two or three of them the Quiet Wink, and they tiptoed after her out to the Dining Room, where she offered Refreshments, and said they could slip out on the Side Porch and Smoke if they wanted to.

[Illustration:  LADY PRESIDENT]

Probably they preferred to go back in the Front Room and hear some more about Woman’s Destiny not.