ittle hands
destroyed its mate)--we congratulated ourselves upon the effect of the
room.

_Apropos_ of the Cupid, Ida sent it last winter with Annibal Caracci's
"Magdalen" and one or two other religious pictures to be framed at
Schaus'. When they were sent home, to our surprise, the frames were
all surmounted by crosses--an emblem that, although quite _en regle_
for the Holy Magdalen, was, we thought, singularly inappropriate for
Cupid. Stopping in at Schaus' a day or two later, I inquired of young
Mr. Schaus, to whose taste we had left the selection of the frames, his
reason for this extraordinary innovation. His reply was as naive as
unexpected:

"But, mademoiselle, does Cupid, then, never meet with crosses?"

Having done our best for the blue room, we walked over the grounds to
see that they were all in order, and when we had admired the pretty
blue boat, the white tent, and the water-lilies in full bloom (planted
that morning), and gone down to the express office to receive a package
due by the ten o'clock train--a copy of the poems of one of the
expected guests, which was to be left carelessly in his room with a
mark at one of the ballads,--we congratulated ourselves that we had
done all in our power to make the rooms look tasteful and pretty.

Lina was in her glory, having had an unrestricted order to do her best.
I had a slight foreboding of disappointment, as it was Friday,
remembering, too, that the dining-room was lighted by three candles the
previous night (a French superstition); but we all dressed in good
spirits.

The somewhat spectral appearance of five ladies in mourning was
somewhat relieved by the recent addition to our little circle, Miss
Worthington, whose dress, though black, was enlivened by a little dash
of pale blue--a most becoming match for her fair complexion and golden
curls.

We did not wish to ruffle our hair unnecessarily by playing croquet or
walking, so we all sat very sedately in the music-room watching for the
5.15 train to arrive. It came at last. We rushed out on the piazza,
but recognized no one among the few passengers who alighted.

Disappointment number one. However, they will surely come at half-past
six, we argued, and taking up some books and work, we waited patiently
until the next train arrived. Again we ran out upon the piazza. Papa
was upon the platform at the depot, but we saw no other figure that
looked familiar.

"What did I tell you, Ida," said I sol