uld think of to exclaim, and he uttered that
somewhat feebly.

"Yes," the old lady nodded her head, all the jet ornaments on her rusty
black bonnet jingling together. "Yes, I've been so nasty about Marcia
Oldham that I want to make some public reparation." She drew herself up
and spoke virtuously; but Hayden doubted the entire sincerity of the
statement. That might be her reason, in part, but he felt convinced of
some deeper motive. She might feel that she no longer had cause for
active opposition to Marcia; but the girl did not appeal to her
temperament and never could. At best, she could regard a woman of Marcia
Oldham's type with but tepid interest. "And she's been gracious enough to
say she'd come. At first, she refused point blank, but I got Wilfred to
persuade her. He and she have always been good friends. Miss Gipsy
Fortune-teller was also inclined to balk; but she too will be here. The
wild thing!" she chuckled delightedly. "I do hope she'll marry Wilfred.
Why, Mr. Hayden, she'd make something of him. Wilfred's not a fool by any
means; but he's so dreadfully lazy. She'll be whip and spur to him. What
do I care for her fortune-telling and all her wild escapades! I like 'em.
They make my old blood tingle. There's a girl after my own heart!"

"Dear me! Who is that?" peering through her glasses. "Maria Sefton and a
party! Good!" She went into a series of cackles that positively made her
bones rattle. "Every one in town has heard of Wilfred's infatuation for
the Mariposa by this time, and there is just one question asked: 'How
will that old witch of a mother of his behave now?'" Again she broke into
peals of her shrill, cackling laughter. "What will they say to this? Look
how I've fooled them! Marcia on one side of me, the Mariposa on the
other! They won't know which it is or why the other dear charmer's here,
or what it all means." She wiped away the tears laughter had brought to
her eyes. Hayden saw now laid bare her underlying motive in urging Marcia
to be present. It was really to mystify her world.

"Ah, Mr. Hampton--Henderson--I can truthfully say that through a long
life, I've never yet done the thing people expect of me."

"I can well believe that," Hayden assured her. He looked about him, down
through the vista of the rooms with their differing and garish schemes of
decoration, at the groups of people moving to and fro, at the whole
kaleidoscopic, colorful picture. "Lots of people here to-day," he said.