ather give up, hook and line, and let Lillie have her
own way in every thing. But then it won't do; a fellow must stop
somewhere. Well, I'll make it up in being a model of civility to these
confounded people that I wish were in the Red Sea. Let's see, I'll ask
Lillie if she don't want to give a party for them when they come. By
George! she shall have every thing her own way there,--send to New
York for the supper, turn the house topsy-turvy, illuminate the
grounds, and do any thing else she can think of. Yes, yes, she shall
have _carte blanche_ for every thing!"

All which John told Mrs. Lillie when he returned to dinner and found
her enacting the depressed wife in a most becoming lace cap and
wrapper that made her look like a suffering angel; and the treaty was
sealed with many kisses.

"You shall have _carte blanche_, dearest," he said, "for every thing
but what we were speaking of; and that will content you, won't it?"

And Lillie, with lingering pensiveness, very graciously acknowledged
that it would; and seemed so touchingly resigned, and made such a
merit of her resignation, that John told her she was an angel; in
fact, he had a sort of indistinct remorseful feeling that he was a
sort of cruel monster to deny her any thing. Lillie had sense enough
to see when she could do a thing, and when she couldn't. She had given
up the case when John went out in the morning, and so accepted the
treaty of peace with a good degree of cheerfulness; and she was soon
busy discussing the matter. "You see, we've been invited everywhere,
and haven't given any thing," she said; "and this will do up our
social obligations to everybody here. And then we can show off our
rooms; they really are made to give parties in."

"Yes, so they are," said John, delighted to see her smile again; "they
seem adapted to that, and I don't doubt you'll make a brilliant affair
of it, Lillie."

"Trust me for that, John," said Lillie. "I'll show the Follingsbees
that something can be done here in Springdale as well as in New York."
And so the great question was settled.

CHAPTER XV.

_THE FOLLINGSBEES ARRIVE_.

Next week the Follingsbees alighted, so to speak, from a cloud of
glory. They came in their own carriage, and with their own horses;
all in silk and silver, purple and fine linen, "with rings on their
fingers and bells on their toes," as the old song has it. We pause
to caution our readers that this last clause is to be interpreted