ne
anything, _anything_ all my life but go to parties and study how to give
them? Oh, Ruth, dear, I do get so tired of it all. But," taking on a
brisker tone, "all the more reason why I should never give such a sad
affair as that dinner. That dinner, Ruth, was what Brian Beck calls a
howling failure. Payson never criticises anything that I do, but even he
came to me quite gingerly this morning, after I had read what the papers
had to say about it, and said, 'My dear child, what was the matter with
your tea-party?' Now, let us admit the success of the other two, and weep
a little in a friendly way over the 'tea-party.'"

"I had a lovely time--" I began, but Sallie interrupted me.

"Hypocrite!" she cried vehemently. "You know you didn't. Your eyes were as
big as turkey platters with apprehension."

"My dear Sallie," I expostulated.

"Don't you dare put on airs with me, then," she said mutinously. "Now,
what ailed them all? It couldn't have been the advent of the Mayos. I've
launched more ticklish craft than they. Nor could it have been that
abominable Brian Beck, who would spoil Paradise and be the utter ruin of
a respectable funeral. Every one seemed to conspire to make my dinner a
failure."

"Oh, Sallie, I think Percival especially exerted himself. He was in his
most exquisite mood."

"Oh, Percival, of course. He must have suspected that something was going
wrong. Did you ever notice, when he talks, how Rachel turns her head away?
But you can see the color creep up into her face. She is too proud and shy
to let people see how much she cares for him. But when _she_ speaks
Percival looks at her with all his eyes, and positively leans forward so
that he shall not miss a word. I love to watch those two. Sometimes when I
have been with them I feel as if I had been to church."

"Then, too, Payson's manner to Nellie Mayo was the most chivalric thing I
ever saw. He treated her as if the best in the land were not too good for
her."

"Nor is it," said Sallie warmly.

"I'm glad you think so. What a sweet, unworldly spirit she has! Almost any
woman would have been distressed because of her gown; but she was so
superior to her dress, with that uplifted face of hers, that I felt
ashamed to think of it myself. You gave her a rare pleasure last night,
for she never meets clever men and women. The Percivals and Mr. Whitehouse
delighted her, and you saw how well she sustained her part of the
conversation. You see she thinks, i