g of the Chapter Serena read her paper. She
mounted the platform with fear and trembling. She left it exalted and
triumphant. The paper had been applauded and she had been congratulated
by her fellow members. Annette was enthusiastic and Mrs. Lake and the
other leaders equally so. Stories of the "vast" wealth inherited by
the Dotts had been circulated freely, and these, quite as much as the
wonderful paper, were responsible for Serena's bound into popularity.

But the popularity was there, and the unconscious Serena believed it to
be real. That meeting was the beginning of her obsession. Thereafter she
talked chapter and society and opportunity and advancement, and ate them
and drank them, too--at least the meals--those at home--seemed to the
captain to be made up of very little else. Their evenings alone together
became few and fewer. When they were not entertaining callers they
were calling. Captain Dan actually began to feel at home in his evening
clothes; a good deal more than he did in his night clothes, so he
told his wife. Breakfast, which, in the beginning of their Scarford
residence, had been served at seven-thirty, was now an hour later, and
even then Daniel frequently ate alone.

Then came the reception idea. Annette--she and Mrs. Dott were calling
each other by their Christian names now--had dropped the hint concerning
it. She had said that a good way in which to repay social obligations
was by doing it all at once, by giving a dinner, or reception, or a tea,
to which everyone should be invited. Serena decided that the reception
was perhaps the better, all things considered. And so preparations for
the reception began. There was to be a collation, and when this item
of information was imparted to Azuba the kitchen became a maelstrom of
activity in which Captain Daniel could no longer find rest and refuge.

"But, Zuba," he remonstrated, "what do you think's comin' here; a drove
of hyenas? You've cooked enough already to victual a ship halfway across
the ocean. These folks eat sometimes at home. You don't think they're
comin' here to make up for six months' starvation, do you?"

"Don't talk to me!" was all the satisfaction he got. "I've heard about
what they had to eat over there at Barney Black's, and I don't mean
for folks to say that they went hungry when they come here. Don't say
another word. I don't know now whether it was a cup full of sugar or a
pinch of salt I put in, or the other way 'round. Cookin