r mother looked up and smiled triumphantly.

"I guess we'll have to plan something different than boxes of cake.
Listen to this; Mis' Lawrence--No, I won't read that yet. Mis'
Manning--I went in there because I thought about her not inviting you
when she gave that library party--one salt and pepper with rose-buds
painted on 'em."

Esther leaned forward; her face was crimson.

"You needn't look so," remonstrated her mother. "It was all I could do
to keep from laughing at the way she acted. I just mentioned that we
were only goin' to invite those you were indebted to, and she went and
fetched out that salt and pepper. I believe she said they was intended
in the first place for some relative that didn't git married in the
end."

The girl made an inarticulate noise in her throat. Her mother continued,
in a loud, impressive tone:

"Mis' Stetson--something worked. She hasn't quite decided what, but
she's goin' to let me know about it. Jane Watson--"

"You didn't go _there_, mother!"

Mrs. Robinson treated her daughter to a contemptuous look. "I guess I've
got sense. Jane was at Mis' Stetson's, and when I came away she went
along with me, and insisted that I should stop and see some
lamp-lighters she'd got to copy from--those paper balls. She seemed
afraid a string of those wouldn't be enough, but I told her how pretty
they was, and how much you'd be pleased."

"I guess I'll think a good deal more of 'em than I will of Mis'
Manning's salt and pepper." Esther was very near tears.

"Next I went to the Rogerses, and they've about concluded to give you a
lamp; and they can afford to. Then that's all the places I've been,
except to Mis' Lawrence's, and she"--Mrs. Robinson paused for
emphasis--"she's goin' to give you a silver _tea-set_!"

Esther looked at her mother, her red lips apart.

"That was the first place I called, and I said pretty plain what I was
gittin' at; but after I knew about the water-set, that settled what kind
of weddin' we'd have."

* * * * *

But the next morning the world looked different. Her rheumatic foot
ached, and that always affected her temper; but when they sat down to
sew, the real cause of her irascibleness came out.

"Mis' Lawrence wa'n't any more civil than she need be," she remarked. "I
guess she'd decided she'd got to do something, being related to Joe. She
said she supposed you were expecting a good many presents; and I said
no, you didn't look fo