Please use the sovereigns in any way you think best.

"I have a little request to make of you, dear Mrs. Aylmer. I am
not likely to come to Dawlish again, but I am much interested
in your dear daughter Florence, and would be greatly obliged if
you would favor me with her address in London. Will you send it
to me by return of post, and will you put it into the addressed
envelope which I enclose, as I do not want my benefactress Mrs.
Aylmer to know anything about this matter? If I can help you at
any time pray command me.

"Yours sincerely,

"BERTHA KEYS."

Mrs. Aylmer was so excited by this letter, and by the fact that she
possessed two sovereigns more money than she had done when she awoke
that morning, that she could scarcely drink the cocoa when Sukey
appeared with it.

"Sukey," she exclaimed to that worthy woman, "it never rains but it
pours. We _will_ have a tea-party: such a tea-party it shall be; done in
style, I can assure you. All the neighbours who have ever shown any
kindness to me shall be invited, and we will have the most recherche
little set-out. I will go to Crook's, in the High Street, and order the
cakes and the pastry and the sandwiches, and we will hire enough cups
and saucers and tea-spoons and all the other things which will be
necessary."

"You had better begin by hiring an increased apartment, ma'am," said
Sukey, in a dubious voice. "I don't say nothing against this parlour,
but it ain't to say large. How will you crowd in all the visitors?"

"It is fashionable to have a crowded room," said Mrs. Aylmer, pausing
for a moment to consider this difficulty. "People can stand and sit on
the stairs; they always do in crushes. This is to be a crush and--"

"How will you pay for it, ma'am?"

"I tell you I have money. What do you say to these?"

As Mrs. Aylmer spoke, she held a sovereign between the finger and thumb
of each hand.

Sukey opened her eyes.

"Is it your sister-in-law, ma'am," she said, "that is changing her
mind?"

"No, it is not; I wish it were. I can tell you no more, you curious old
body; but when both our silk dresses are made to fit us we will have the
party."

Sukey went softly out of the room.

"There's something brewing that I don't quite like," she said to
herself. "I wish Miss Florence was at home! I wish the missus hadn't
those queer mean ways! But there, when all's said and done, I have
learned to be fond of