you ever should happen to have a
party again, she should open the rooms and have the air changed better
the next day; and as you are not used to such things yourself, I
thought I might as well let you know it, too. I raised the windows
myself. Now," she added, "the room is too cold to sit in, and I would
prefer going to your dining-room, or wherever you were when I came
in."

"Certainly, certainly, Miss Debby," said Mrs. Smith, marshaling the
way.

"Stop!" said Miss Debby, "I want to take a look at your wall paper--I
never noticed it before. I can't say I like your taste; though, no
doubt, you took it for the sake of economy--ugly papers sometimes go
very cheap."

"You are quite mistaken, I assure you, Miss Debby," began Mrs. Smith,
eagerly.

"Well, it's of no consequence," interrupted Miss Debby, "only I heard
Matilda Shipley say yesterday, that there would be no use in dressing
much for Mrs. Pelby Smith's party, as her low rooms, with their dingy,
dirt-colored paper, could never be lighted up to make any one look
well."

Mrs. Smith cleared her throat, but said nothing, recollecting by this
time that all retort or explanation was lost upon Miss Deborah
Coggins. To change the subject she remarked, "How disappointed I was
at your not coming last night, my dear Miss Debby--one of the friends
I most wished to see."

"I have been rather sorry myself that I did not come, since I heard
that the party turned out better than could have been expected. I
supposed that there would have been a great many here that I did not
know, and that my own set, mostly, would have stayed away, like
myself, not caring much to meet them."

"What an idea, Miss Debby! there was scarcely one in the room that you
did not know. My company was very select."

"So I was told to-day. Mrs. William Van Pelt said that you had invited
every body that would not thank you, and, as she had been told, had
left out those that had the best right to expect invitations. I should
like to have had a share of the supper," continued Miss Debby. "I
heard that you had worried yourself nearly to death preparing it, and
that it was really good, considering that you were not used to such
things. Young John Pendleton said that it made him some little amends
for being forced to go to a place where he made a mistake every time
he addressed his entertainers and called them Joneses."

Sorely wincing as Mrs. Smith was, she did not forget Miss Debby's
notoriety for f