r many, and there were some that you'd done a good
deal for that you knew better than to expect anything from. I was mad.
Then she turned kind of red, and mentioned about the water-set."

And in the afternoon a young girl acquaintance added to Esther's
perturbation. "I just met Susan Rogers," she confided to the other, "and
she said they hated to give that lamp, but they supposed they were in
for it."

Esther was not herself for some days. All her pretty dreams were blotted
out, and a morbid embarrassment took hold of her; but she was roused to
something like her old interest when the presents began to come in and
she saw her mother's active preparations for the wedding--the more so as
over the village seemed to have spread a pleasant excitement concerning
the event. Presents arrived from unexpected sources, so that
invitations had to be sent afterwards to the givers. Women who had
never crossed the Robinson threshold came now like Hindoo gift-bearers
before some deity whom they wished to propitiate. Meeting there, they
exchanged droll, half-deprecating glances. Mrs. Robinson's calls had
formed the subject of much laughing comment; but weddings were not
common in Marshfield, and the desire to be bidden to this one was
universal; it spread like an epidemic.

Mrs. Robinson was at first elated. She overlooked the matter of
duplicates, and accepted graciously every article that was
tendered--from a patch-work quilt to a hem-stitched handkerchief. "You
can't have too many of some things," she remarked to Esther. But later
she reversed this statement. Match-safes, photograph-frames, and pretty
nothings accumulated to an alarming extent.

"Now that's the last pin-cushion you're goin' to take," she declared, as
she returned from answering a call at the door one evening. "There's
fourteen in the parlor now. Some folks seem to have gone crazy on
pin-cushions."

She grew confused, and the next day she went into the parlor, which,
owing to the nature of the display, resembled a booth at a church fair,
and made an accurate list of the articles received. When she emerged,
her large, handsome face was quite flushed.

"Little wabbly, fall-down things, most of 'em. It'll take you a week to
dust your house if you have all those things standin' round."

"Well, I ain't goin' to put none of 'em away," declared Esther. "I like
ornaments."

"Glad you do; you've got enough of 'em, land knows. _Ornaments!_" The
very word seemed to inc