ile tick, tock, the clock beat out the time.

"We'll wait five minutes for her," thought Mrs. Lambert. "If there
hasn't been an accident to detain her, she's very rude, and certainly
not fit to be a teacher of _manners_, and I don't wonder she's unpopular
with the girls."

The three minutes, the five minutes sped by, and the awaited guest did
not appear. To wait longer would be unfair to the others, and Mrs.
Lambert gave orders for the dinner to be served. It was seemingly a
very cheerful little company that gathered about the dinner-table; but
there was something pathetic in it, when one came to consider that each
one of these guests was for the time at least sitting at the stranger's
feast instead of with his own kith and kin on this family day. Mrs.
Lambert herself felt this pathos, and it brought back, too, the losses
and limitations in her home circle; for what with death and absence, her
five children had no one now but herself to look to, where once were the
dear grandparents, the fond father, and a score or more of other
relations. But she must not dwell on these memories with all these
guests to serve. She must put her own needs aside to see that little
Miss Jenny Carver had a better choice of celery, that Molly Price and
that big lonesome-looking Ingalls boy had another help to cranberry
sauce, and Joe Marchant a fresh supply of turkey.

It was while she was attending to this latter duty, while she was
laughing a little at Joe's clumsy apology for his appetite, and telling
him jestingly that she hoped to see him eat enough for two, because one
guest was missing,--while she was doing this, there came a great crunch
of carriage wheels on the driveway, and a great ring at the door-bell,
and, "There she is! there she is!" thinks Mrs. Lambert, with the added
thought: "It's rather putting on airs, seems to me, to take a carriage
when she is at such a little distance from us,--rather putting on airs,
but--What _are_ you jumping up for?" she calls out to Elsie, who has
suddenly sprung from her seat. "What are you jumping up for? Ellen will
attend Miss Matthews upstairs, and send her into us when she has removed
her wraps. Sit down, Elsie; don't be so fidgety. I will--" But the
dining-room door was here suddenly flung wide, and Mrs. Lambert saw
coming toward her, not, oh, not Miss Matthews, but a tall gentleman with
a thin, worn face crowned with snow-white hair; and, catching sight of
this snowy crown, Mrs. Lambert