t is no worse to leave her out
than scores of others who will not be invited."

"But to come into the house and ask all but her," said Anna. "It
does not seem right. She is as good as we are."

"That's as people think," returned Carrie, while John Jr., who was
just going out to ride, and had stopped a moment at the door,
exclaimed, "Zounds, Cad, I wonder if you fancy yourself better than
'Lena Rivers. If you do, you are the only one that thinks so. Why,
you can't begin to compare with her, and it's a confounded shame that
she isn't invited, and so I shall tell them if I have a good chance."

"You'll look smart fishing for an invitation, won't you?" said
Carrie, her fears instantly aroused, but John Jr. was out of her
hearing almost before the words were uttered.

Mounting Firelock, he started off for Versailles, falling in with
Durward, who was bound for the same place. After the usual greetings
were exchanged, Durward said, "I suppose you are all coming on
Thursday night?"

"Yes," returned John Jr., "I believe the old folks, Cad, and Anna
intend doing so."

"But where's Miss Rivers? Doesn't she honor us with her presence?"
asked Durward, in some concern.

John Jr.'s first impulse, as he afterwards said, was "to knock him
off from his horse," but a second thought convinced him there might
be some mistake; so he replied that "it was hardly to be supposed
Miss Rivers would attend without an invitation--she wasn't quite so
verdant as that!"

"Without an invitation!" repeated Durward, stopping short in the
road. "'Lena not invited! It isn't so! I directed one to her
myself, and gave it to Nero, together with the rest which were
designed for your family. He must have lost it. I'll ask him the
moment I get home, and see that it is all made right. She must come,
any way, for I wouldn't give----"

Here he stopped, as if he had said too much, but John Jr. finished
the sentence for him.

"Wouldn't give a picayune for the whole affair without her--that's
what you mean, and why not say so? I speak right out about Nellie,
and she isn't one half as handsome as 'Lena."

"It isn't 'Lena's beauty that I admire altogether," returned Durward.
"I like her for her frankness, and because I think her conduct is
actuated by the best of principles; perhaps I am mistaken----"

"No, you are not," again interrupted John Jr., "'Lena is just what
she seems to be. There's no deception in her. She isn't one thing
to-day