e of those shoddy upstarts, not at all our sort
of folks. I'm sorry you asked him."

"But his wife is my particular friend," said Lillie, "and they were
very polite to mamma and me at Newport; and we really owe them some
attention."

"Well, Lillie, since you have asked them, I will be polite to
them; and I will try and do every thing to save you care in this
entertainment. I'll speak to Bridget myself; she knows our ways, and
has been used to managing."

And so, as John was greatly beloved by Bridget, and as all the
domestic staff had the true Irish fealty to the man of the house, and
would run themselves off their feet in his service any day,--it came
to pass that the _fete_ was holden, as of yore, in the grounds. Grace
was there and helped, and so were Letitia and Rose Ferguson; and all
passed off better than could be expected. But John did not enjoy it.
He felt all the while that he was dragging Lillie as a thousand-pound
weight after him; and he inly resolved that, once out of that day's
festival, he would never try to have it again.

Lillie went to bed with sick headache, and lay two days after it,
during which she cried and lamented incessantly. She "knew she was not
the wife for John;" she "always told him he wouldn't be satisfied with
her, and now she saw he wasn't; but she had tried her very best, and
now it was cruel to think she should not succeed any better."

"My dearest child," said John, who, to say the truth, was beginning to
find this thing less charming than it used to be, "I _am_ satisfied.
I am much obliged to you. I'm sure you have done all that could be
asked."

"Well, I'm sure I hope those folks of yours were pleased," quoth
Lillie, as she lay looking like a martyr, with a cloth wet in
ice-water bound round her head. "They ought to be; they have left
grease-spots all over the sofa in my boudoir, from one end to the
other; and cake and raisins have been trodden into the carpets; and
the turf around the oval is all cut up; and they have broken my little
Diana; and such a din as there was!--oh, me! it makes my head ache to
think of it."

[Illustration: "Oh, me! it makes my head ache to think of it."]

"Never mind, Lillie, I'll see to it, and set it all right."

"No, you can't. One of the children broke that model of the Leaning
Tower too. I found it. You can't teach such children to let things
alone. Oh, dear me! my head!"

"There, there, pussy! only don't worry," said John, in soothing