Galusha nodded, cheerfully.  “When she thinks they need it,” he replied.

“Humph!  I understand now what you meant by saying she had taken charge of you.  Does she boss you?”

Another cheerful nod.  “I always need it,” answered Galusha.

Martha, of course, presided at the supper table.  Primmie did not sit down with the rest.  She ate in the kitchen with the Cabot chauffeur.  But she entered the dining room from time to time to bring in hot brown bread or beans or cookies, or to change the plates, and each time she did so she stared at Cousin Gussie with awe in her gaze.  Evidently the knowledge that the head of Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot was sitting there before her had impressed her hugely.  It was from Cabot, Bancroft and Cabot, so Primmie remembered, that Mr. Bangs had procured the mammoth pile of bank notes which she had seen upon her mistress’s center table.  She had never actually been told where those notes came from, but she had guessed.  And now the proprietor of the “money factory”—­for that is very nearly what it was in her imagination—­was there, sitting at the Phipps’ ’dining table, eating the baked beans that she herself had helped prepare.  No wonder that Primmie was awe-stricken, no wonder that she tripped over the mat corner and just escaped showering the distinguished guest with a platterful of those very beans.

Mr. Cabot seemed to enjoy his supper hugely.  He was jolly, talkative, and very entertaining.  He described his camp sojourn in Nevada and, according to him, life in a mountain sanitarium, under the care of a doctor and two husky male nurses, was a gorgeous joke.  Martha, who, to tell the truth, had at first secretly shown a little of Primmie’s awe, was soon completely at ease.  Even Galusha laughed, though not as often.  It was hard for him to forget the powder barrel sensation.  Each time his cousin opened his mouth to speak, he dreaded to hear reference to a dangerous subject or to be asked a question which would set fire to the fuse.

The clock struck seven.  Martha glanced at it and suddenly uttered an exclamation.

“My goodness gracious!” she exclaimed.  “I declare, Mr. Bangs, you and I have forgotten all about that blessed seance.  And half past seven was the time for it to begin.  Good gracious me!”

Galusha started.  “Dear me, dear me!” he cried.  “So it was.  I had completely forgotten it, really I had.”

He put his hand to his forehead.

“I shall have to go to it,” declared Martha.  “Lulie begged me to come and the cap’n won’t like it if I stay away.  But I don’t see that you need to, Mr. Bangs.  You and your cousin can stay right here and talk and be comfortable.  He is goin’ to stay overnight.  Oh, yes, you are, Mr. Cabot.  I wouldn’t let a stray cat go to Elmer Roger’s hotel if I could help it, to say nothin’ of Mr. Bangs’ cousin.  The spare room’s all ready and Primmie is up there now, airin’ it.  She took your bag up with her; I had your chauffeur bring it in from the car.”