aced Esther. "Of course
I wouldn't _ask_ 'em; there's other ways of findin' out besides
_asking_. I'd bring the subject round by saying I hoped there wouldn't
be many duplicates, and I'd git out of 'em what they intended givin'
without seemin' to." Esther looked at her mother with a sort of
fascination. "Then we could give some idea about the refreshments; for I
ain't a-goin' to have no elaborate layout without I _do_ know; and it
ain't because I grudge the money, either," she added, in swift
self-defence.

Mrs. Robinson was a good manager of the moderate means her husband had
left her, but she was not parsimonious or inhospitable. Now she was
actuated by a fierce maternal jealousy. Esther, despite her pleasant
ways and her helpfulness, was often overlooked in a social way. This was
due to her mother. The more pretentious laughed about Mrs. Robinson, and
though the thrifty, contented housewife never missed the amenities which
might have been extended to her, she was keenly alive to any slights put
upon her daughter. And so it was now.

Mrs. Lawrence, a rich, childless old lady, lived next door, and about
four o'clock she went over there. The girl watched her departure
doubtfully, but the possibility of not having a large wedding kept her
from giving a full expression to her feelings.

Esther had always dreamed of her wedding; she had looked forward to it
just as definitely before she met Joe Elsworth as after her engagement
to him. There would be flowers and guests and feasting, and she would be
the centre of it all in a white dress and veil.

She had never thought about there being any presents. Now for the first
time she thought of them as an added glory, but her imagination did not
extend to the separate articles or to their givers. Esther never
pictured her uncle Jonas at the wedding, yet he would surely be in
attendance in his rough farmer clothes, his grizzled, keen old face
towering above the other guests. She did not picture her friends as she
really knew them; the young men would be fine gentlemen, and the girls
ladies in wonderful toilets. As for herself and Joe, hidden away in a
bureau drawer Esther had a poster of one of Frohman's plays. It
represented a bride and groom standing together in a drift of orange
blossoms.

Mrs. Robinson did not return at supper-time, and Esther ate alone. At
eight o'clock Joe Elsworth came. She met him at the door, and they
kissed in the entry. Then Joe preceded her in, an