r-ready tears. "Oh, Mother, I was just so glad to see her!
I really didn't mean to do anything to mess up your party! I was just
so glad to see her! She was so awfully nice to me that day!"

"Don't cry, Arethusa," said Elinor absently, "don't cry, please! It
isn't worth tears. We'll fix it somehow."

Yet the situation was a bit peculiar, without a doubt. The Cherry
family could not be sent home, though at the same time, Elinor had a
vision of some of those worthy ladies she had invited to her luncheon
should the Cherry children join the Party. Just what had best be
done....

Arethusa had a gleam first.

"Could Mrs. Cherry," she suggested timidly, "could Mrs. Cherry come to
your Party and let me eat with Helen Louise and Peter in the breakfast
room? Would it make very much difference?" And this was the noblest
piece of self-sacrifice on Arethusa's part which any human being has
ever performed, for above all else on earth, save the Wonderful Mr.
Bennet, she loved a Party. "Would it make very much difference if I
didn't come?"

Elinor considered that there were possibilities in this Idea of such
real worth that it almost atoned for the lapse which had made it
necessary of existence. She could tell better, however, after seeing
Mrs. Cherry whether it could be carried out in its entirety or modified
or extended.

So she and Arethusa proceeded to the library.

Peter had somewhat recovered himself during the moments of Arethusa's
absence and was now engaged in climbing first into one big chair and
then another, and bounding out. It was a charming pastime, but one in
which Helen Louise had refused to join. She still sat just as at first,
like a small graven image, with stiff little flaxen plaits sticking out
from each side of her head, and staring straight before her, with
unblinking pale blue eyes, at the log fire. Her small hands were
clasped between her rigid little knees, and her feet, owing to the fact
that she was small and the davenport was large, were far from the floor
and extended at direct right angles from her body. She did not even
move at the entrance of Arethusa with Elinor.

Mrs. Cherry, like her son, was rapidly coming to herself after that
encounter with the magnificent George. She was reclining now, at ease,
and her eyes were roving busily about, and she made little ejaculations
under her breath with each new object she spied.

Elinor was exceedingly gracious when Arethusa introduced her to the
un