d Cora Pitchley say that would have any particular effect on
me?" she asked.

"She knows for a fact that she isn't to be asked to the Pink Ball on
the twenty-third, and that Mrs. Van der Windt herself scratched your
name off the list before she sailed for Europe."

Mrs. Ess Kay's face went a dull, ugly red, and she laughed a loud laugh
which sounded as if it would be the same colour. "As for Cora, I can
_quite_ understand; but I don't believe the woman would have dared to
try to exclude _me_," she said in a quivery voice.

"Why shouldn't she have dared, when you come to think of it?"

"Well, anyhow--she don't dare _now_."

"No, naturally, she won't dare now. You're as smart as they make 'em,
Kath."

Then, for some reason, they both turned and gazed at me with a
"thank-goodness-here's-a-floating-spar" sort of look, while Sally
examined the grounds in her tea-cup, with that funny little
three-cornered smile of hers.

"Was that the thing you thought would change me toward Cora Pitchley?"
asked Mrs. Ess Kay.

"Yes, I thought it would give you a sort of fellow feeling."

"It doesn't," said she, shortly, "and nobody but a man could have
thought it would. It makes me feel all the more that I don't want to be
mixed up with her, for--for Betty's sake."

Potter whistled, with one thumb in a breast pocket. "For the che-ild's
sake," he remarked dramatically; and Mrs. Ess Kay looked angry.

"I shan't invite the Pitchleys to my big affair," said she; "the affair
I'm going to have for Betty."

"Oh, but you must please not put yourself out for me!" I exclaimed. "I
should be so sorry to have you do that."

Potter laughed "Don't you try to rob her of her dearest triumph, Lady
Daisy. You're the big gem for the middle of the setting. You're the
Kohinoor."

"Potter! You ought to be ashamed of yourself, talking to her like
that," said Mrs. Ess Kay. "But all he means, Betty, is that I shall be
very glad to do anything I can to make your visit pleasant; and it will
be no trouble at all for me to give an entertainment, you may be quite
sure."

She said this as the Queen might say that it didn't matter to her
whether there were seventy-five people or seventy-six asked to a garden
party; and I realised that I was snubbed; so I said no more.

IX

ABOUT BATHING, A DRESS, AND AN EARL

Mrs. Ess Kay had a headache next morning, and stopped in bed. She
couldn't speak or be spoken to, and so we couldn't possibly ask her