ated from the dining-room, and following the sound he stumbled over a
shadowy palm and came upon Juliet as she put the last touches to a long
white table, radiant with cut glass and roses.

She wore a faded blue dressing-gown, caught loosely together, and her
curling hair, untouched by gray, fell carelessly from its coil across
her full, fair cheek. She had developed from a fragile girl into a
rounded matron without losing the peculiar charm of her beauty. The
abundant curve of her white throat was still angelic in its outline. As
she leaned over to settle the silver candelabra on the table, the light
deepened the flush in her face and imparted a shifting radiance to her
full-blown loveliness.

"How is it, little woman?" asked Galt as he put his arm about the blue
dressing-gown. "Working yourself to death, are you?"

Since entering his home he had lost entirely the air of business-like
severity which he had worn all day. He looked young and credulous.
Juliet laughed with the pettish protest of a half-spoiled wife and drew
back from the table.

"It is almost time to dress Carrie," she said, "and the ice-cream hasn't
come. Everything else is here. Did you get dinner downtown?"

"Such as it was--a miserable pretence. For heaven's sake, let's have
this over and settle down. I only wish it were Carrie's wedding; then we
might hope for a rest."

"Until Julie comes out--she's nearly fourteen. But you ought to be
ashamed, when we've been working like Turks. Eugenia cut up every bit of
the chicken salad and Emma Carr made the mayonnaise--she makes the most
delicious you ever tasted. Aren't those candelabra visions? Emma lent
them to me, and Mrs. Randolph sent her oriental lamps. There's the bell
now! It must be Eugie's extra forks; she said she'd send them as soon as
she got home."

"Good Lord!" ejaculated Galt feebly. "You are as great at borrowing as
the children of Israel."

His comments were cut short by the entrance of Eugenia's silver basket,
accompanied by an enormous punch bowl, which she sent word she had
remembered at the last moment.

"Bless her heart!" exclaimed Juliet. "She forgets nothing; but I hope
that bowl won't get broken, it is one somebody brought the general from
China fifty years ago. Eugie is so careless. She invited the children to
tea the other afternoon and I found her giving them jam on those old
Tucker Royal Worcester plates."

She broke off an instant to draw Galt into the reception room