t
came into her mind at mention of dining out.

"Lord a-mercy!" says Mrs. Gildenfenny, when she had read a little
further; "Lord a-mercy! if I'm not decent, why does he ask me? Why don't
he say, at once, 'Please wash yourself before you come; and if you can't
afford soap and water, here's a ticket'? Susan, get me up! Dress me
right away! I must have this explained."

"But your breakfast, ma'am," says Susan.

"Eat? eat? with such a thing on my mind? No! I'll go at once to his
house!" and in a few moments Mrs. Gildenfenny also went out.

* * * * *

Mr. and Mrs. Totty were served with their invitation over a
breakfast-table where meekness and humility were administered with the
rolls and poured out with the weak cambric tea of the little ones. The
meal was an impressive ceremony, where discourses on duty and against
excess of the palate were often the only relishes present.

Mr. Totty would paint the miseries of the epicure, and Mrs.
Totty those of the dyspeptic, in words of eloquence which made
milk-and-sugar-and-water a liquid of priceless moral value, though they
never succeeded in strengthening its nutritive effects. While the eldest
Totty had answered the postman's summons, Mr. Totty was exhorting his
youngest son to avoid butter to his bread as a pitfall through which he
must eventually come to a state of depravity too dreadful to be put in
words. He opened the envelope very deliberately, supposing it to contain
a bill, but with a smile on his benevolent face which betokened a
reverent spirit under suffering. As he read the opening lines and went
onward, the smile passed through the stages of surprise, gratification,
appetite, eagerness, and then passed into a look of doubt. He laughed in
a gently acid way, and said,--

"My dear, Mr. Grapewine invites us to a Christmas dinner, which, of
course, we could not attend----"

"Why not?" exclaims Mrs. Totty, eagerly.

"Which it would do gross injury to our principles to attend," continued
Mr. Totty; "and I will call on him, with our refusal, this morning,
myself."

Mrs. Totty resignedly helped him on with his overcoat, and submitted to
the mildly spoken decree which was law in the house of the Tottys.

In a short time her husband went out with the invitation in his pocket
and a look of unusual benevolence in his eyes.

Dr. Tuggle and lady read the invitation together over their
breakfast-table, and fell to quarrelling so dreadfully ab