r, when I saw one of the
poor girls actually clap her hands with delight at the announcement of
her carriage?"

"Oh, no! Leave it to me, and it shall not be a stiff affair at all. We
will appear in fancy dresses--"

"My dear Philip!" remonstrated Mrs. Donaldson.

"Oh! not you, my dear mother, nor my father, unless he should like
it--indeed, it shall be optional with all--but enough, I am sure, will
like to make it an entertaining variety."

"But where shall we get fancy dresses, distant as we are from the city?"
asked Annie.

"Leave yours to me, Annie, I have it ready for you," said Philip
Donaldson, with so significant an air, that I at once suspected this
suggestion to have been the result of the arrival on that very day of a
box, addressed to him by a ship from Constantinople, of which he had
hitherto made a great mystery.

"Thank you, Philip; but you cannot, I suppose, supply all the company,
and I had rather not be the only one in fancy costume, if you please."

"If mamma will surrender to me the key of that great wardrobe, up
stairs, which contains the brocade dresses, shoe-buckles, knee-buckles,
etc., of our great-grandfathers and grandmothers, I will promise to
supply dresses for our own party, at least, with a little aid from the
needles and scissors."

"I bar scissors," cried Col. Donaldson. "Those venerable heir-looms--"

"Shall not lose a shred, sir," said Philip; "the scissors shall only be
used to cut the threads, with which the ladies take in a reef here and
there, when it is necessary."

"But you have provided only for our party. Are our guests not to be in
costume?"

"That may be as they please. We will express the wish, and if they have
any ingenuity, they can have no difficulty in getting up some of the
staple characters of such a scene, flower-girls and shepherdesses,
sailors, sultans, and beggars."

The scheme seemed feasible enough, when thus presented, and had
sufficient novelty to please the young people. It was accordingly
adopted, and the evening was passed in writing invitations, which were
dispatched at an early hour the next morning. The three succeeding days
were days of pleasurable excitement, in preparation for the fete.
Needles and scissors were both in active use, and the brocade dresses
lost, I am afraid, more than one shred in the process of adjusting them
to the figures for which they were now designed. Mrs. Dudley and Mrs.
Seagrove were thus arranged as rival beautie