y. At two
o'clock a procession of village children and their friends and parents,
headed by the village band, marched up the avenue and passed before the
house on their way to their special part of the park. Lady Maria and her
guests stood upon the broad steps and welcomed the jocund crowd, as it
moved by, with hospitable bows and nods and becks and wreathed smiles.
Everybody was in a delighted good-humour.

As the villagers gathered in the park, the house-party joined them by
way of the gardens. A conjurer from London gave an entertainment under a
huge tree, and children found white rabbits taken from their pockets and
oranges from their caps, with squeals of joy and shouts of laughter.
Lady Maria's guests walked about and looked on, laughing with the
children.

The great affair of tea followed the performance. No treat is fairly
under way until the children are filled to the brim with tea and buns
and cake, principally cake in plummy wedges.

Lady Agatha and Mrs. Ralph handed cake along rows of children seated on
the grass. Miss Brooke was talking to Lord Walderhurst when the work
began. She had poppies in her hat and carried a poppy-coloured parasol,
and sat under a tree, looking very alluring.

"I ought to go and help to hand cake," she said.

"My cousin Maria ought to do it," remarked Lord Walderhurst, "but she
will not--neither shall I. Tell me something about the elevated railroad
and Five-Hundred-and-Fifty-Thousandth Street." He had a slightly rude,
gracefully languid air, which Cora Brooke found somewhat impressive,
after all.

Emily Fox-Seton handed cake and regulated supplies with cheerful tact
and good spirits. When the older people were given their tea, she moved
about their tables, attending to every one. She was too heart-whole in
her interest in her hospitalities to find time to join Lady Maria and
her party at the table under the ilex-trees. She ate some
bread-and-butter and drank a cup of tea while she talked to some old
women she had made friends with. She was really enjoying herself
immensely, though occasionally she was obliged to sit down for a few
moments just to rest her tired feet. The children came to her as to an
omnipotent and benign being. She knew where the toys were kept and what
prizes were to be given for the races. She represented law and order and
bestowal. The other ladies walked about in wonderful dresses, smiling
and exalted, the gentlemen aided the sports in an amateurish wa