n's dinners. The Mississippian and his daughters enjoyed
the delicacies spread lavishly before them.

Time passed quickly. The old planter enjoyed seeing his daughters
have so happy a time, and he was not insensible to the charm of his
hostess' conversation, for Mrs. Spangler had studied carefully the art
of ingratiating herself with her guests.

Suddenly realizing that he had probably reached the limit of the time
he could spare, the Senator drew out his watch.

"What a stunning fob you wear," quickly spoke Mrs. Spangler, reaching
out her hand and taking the watch from her guest's hands as the case
snapped open.

"Oh, that's Carolina's doings," laughed Langdon. "She said the old
gold chain that my grandfather left me was--"

"Why, how lovely," murmured Mrs. Spangler, glancing at the watch. "We
have plenty of time yet. Won't have to hurry. Your time is the same as
mine," she added, nodding her head toward a French renaissance clock
on the black marble mantel.

As the hostess did this she deftly turned back the hands of the
Senator's watch thirty-five minutes.

"Do you care to smoke, Senator," Mrs. Spangler asked, as her guests
concluded their repast, "if the young ladies do not object?"

Langdon inclined his head gratefully, and laughed.

"They wouldn't be Southern girls, I reckon, if they didn't want to
see a man have everything to make him happy--er, I beg pardon, Mrs.
Spangler, I mean, comfortable. Nobody that's your guest could be
unhappy."

The hostess beamed on the chivalrous Southerner.

Langdon drew forth a thick black perfecto and settled back luxuriously
in his chair, after another glance at Mrs. Spangler's clock. He was
absorbed in a mental resume of his forthcoming speech and did not hear
the next words of the woman, addressed pointedly to his daughters.

"Do you know, really, why this luncheon was given to-day?" she
queried. Then she continued before Carolina and Hope Georgia could
formulate replies:

"Because your father and I wanted to take this opportunity to announce
to you--our engagement."

The speaker smiled her sweetest smile.

The two girls gazed at each other in uncontrollable amazement, then at
Mrs. Spangler, then at their father, who had turned partly away from
the table and was gazing abstractedly at the ceiling.

Hope Georgia was the first to regain her voice.

"Oh, Mrs. Spangler," she ejaculated, "you are very kind to marry
father, but--"

"What's that?" exclaimed the