ilted up, the cup tilted
over, and a stream of chocolate poured over her hand and arm, and
descended into her lap, where it formed a neat brown pool with green
flannel banks. Moreover, an auxiliary stream was meandering over the
table, making rapid progress towards the rose-coloured silk and white
lace.

With an angry exclamation of _"Bete!"_ Rita pushed her chair back out of
danger. Poor Peggy, after the first terrified "Ow!" as the hot
chocolate deluged her, sat still, apparently afraid of making matters
worse if she stirred. Margaret, after ringing the bell violently to call
Elizabeth, promptly checked the threatening rivulet on the table with
her napkin, and then, seizing Peggy's, proceeded to sop up the pool as
well as she could.

"I never!" gasped the unhappy girl. "Why, I didn't do a thing! it just
tipped right over!"

"It is too bad!" said Margaret, as sympathetically as she could, though
her cousin did look so funny, it was hard to keep from smiling. "Oh,
here is Elizabeth! Elizabeth, we have had an accident, and I fear Miss
Peggy's dress is quite ruined. Can you think of anything to take the
stains out?"

Elizabeth surveyed the scene with a practised eye.

"Hot soapsuds will be the best thing," she said. "If the young lady will
come up with me at once, and take the frock off, I will see what can be
done."

"Yes, do go with Elizabeth, dear!" urged Margaret. "Nothing can be done
till the dress is off."

And poor Peggy went off, hanging her head and looking very miserable.

Rita, as soon as her dress was out of danger, was able to see the affair
in another light, and as her cousin left the room burst into a peal of
silvery laughter.

"Oh, hush!" cried Margaret. "She will hear you, Rita!"

"And if she does?" replied Rita, drawing her chair up to the table
again, and sipping her chocolate leisurely. "Acrobats expect to be
laughed at, and certainly this was a most astonishing _tour de force_.
Seriously, my dear," she added, seeing Margaret's troubled look, "how
are we to take our Western cousin, if we do not treat her as a comic
monstrosity? Is it possible that she is a Montfort? I shall call her
Cousin Calibana, I think!"

She nibbled daintily at a macaroon, and went on: "It is a thing to be
thankful for that the green frock is probably hopelessly ruined. I am
quite sure it would have affected my nerves seriously if I had been
obliged to see it every day. Do they perhaps cut dresses with a
mowing-ma