re! And your niece
mayn't come, you know; or if she does, you ain't bound to bring her out
to the general company."

At parting, Spindler, in sheer gratefulness, pressed her hand, and
lingered so long over it that a little color sprang into the widow's
brown cheek. Perhaps a fresh courage sprang into her heart, too, for
she went to Sacramento the next day, previously enjoining Spindler on no
account to show any answers he might receive. At Sacramento her nieces
flew to her with confidences.

"We so wanted to see you, Aunt Huldy, for we've heard something so
delightful about your funny Christmas Party!" Mrs. Price's heart sank,
but her eyes snapped. "Only think of it! One of Mr. Spindler's long-lost
relatives--a Mr. Wragg--lives in this hotel, and papa knows him. He's
a sort of half-uncle, I believe, and he's just furious that Spindler
should have invited him. He showed papa the letter; said it was
the greatest piece of insolence in the world; that Spindler was an
ostentatious fool, who had made a little money and wanted to use him
to get into society; and the fun of the whole thing was that this
half-uncle and whole brute is himself a parvenu,--a vulgar, ostentatious
creature, who was only a"--

"Never mind what he was, Kate," interrupted Mrs. Price hastily. "I call
his conduct a shame."

"So do we," said both girls eagerly. After a pause Kate clasped her
knees with her locked fingers, and rocking backwards and forwards, said,
"Milly and I have got an idea, and don't you say 'No' to it. We've had
it ever since that brute talked in that way. Now, through him, we know
more about this Mr. Spindler's family connections than you do; and we
know all the trouble you and he'll have in getting up this party. You
understand? Now, we first want to know what Spindler's like. Is he a
savage, bearded creature, like the miners we saw on the boat?"

Mrs. Price said that, on the contrary, he was very gentle, soft-spoken,
and rather good-looking.

"Young or old?"

"Young,--in fact, a mere boy, as you may judge from his actions,"
returned Mrs. Price, with a suggestive matronly air.

Kate here put up a long-handled eyeglass to her fine gray eyes, fitted
it ostentatiously over her aquiline nose, and then said, in a voice of
simulated horror, "Aunt Huldy,--this revelation is shocking!"

Mrs. Price laughed her usual frank laugh, albeit her brown cheek took
upon it a faint tint of Indian red. "If that's the wonderful idea you
girls