at swell receptions in the city, she had
explained to Elizabeth, a man who announced the names of the guests to
the hostess. No one had ever had anything so magnificent in Cheemaun.
Of course he had to come up from Toronto to do the catering anyway,
because Madeline had had him at her reception, and Estella was going to
go just a little farther, and didn't Beth think it was a perfectly
splendid idea--so grand and stylish?

Beth supposed it was. But of what use would he be. "I thought a man
like that was to tell the hostess the names because she wouldn't know
them," she had ventured very practically. "But you know every cat and
dog in Cheemaun, Stella."

Stella was disgusted with Beth's obtuseness. "Style was the thing
after all," she explained. "People who gave social functions never
bothered about whether things were any use or not. That wasn't the
point at all."

Elizabeth had not attempted further to see the point, as the Vision had
claimed her attention, and she now looked at the young man with some
pride. Evidently Estella was doing things up magnificently. But the
ladies whom he addressed were differently impressed. Mrs. Colin
McTavish's patience was exhausted. The idea of anyone in Sarah
Raymond's house asking her her name! She looked down at the dapper
little man with disdain. He was a forward young piece, she decided,
some uppish bit thing that was dangling after Stella, most likely.
"Young man," she said severely, "where's your manners? Can ye no wait
to be introduced to a body?"

The young man looked alarmed. He glanced appealingly at Mrs. John
Coulson, and Annie, with her more perfect knowledge of Estella's ways,
whispered tactfully:

"He wants to call out your names, Mrs. McTavish; he's doing it for
everybody."

Mrs. McTavish stared. "And what for would he be shouting out my name?"
she demanded. "If Sarah Raymond doesn't know my name by this time she
never will. Come away, Margit," she added to her companion, and the
two passed in unheralded.

"Mrs. Coulson! Miss Gordon!" piped the little man, and Elizabeth found
herself shaking hands with Mrs. Raymond and Estella. Or was it Estella?

The young debutante, in a heavy elaborate satin gown, stood with a
fixed and anguished smile upon her face, squeezing the fingers of each
guest in a highly elevated position, and saying in a tone and accent
entirely unlike her old girlish hoydenish manner:

"How do you do, Mrs. McTavish, it was