Within Mrs. Merryweather Mason's brown house hospitality sat enthroned
and the generous dining-room was held by a regiment of feminine
out-of-town acquaintances. At intervals Aunt Charity, the cook, issued
from the kitchen to peer surreptitiously through the dining-room door
with vast delight.

"Dey cert'n'y do take aftah dat fried chick'n," she said to old
Jereboam, who, with a half-dozen extras, had been pressed into
perspiring tray-service. "Dey got all de Mefodis' preachahs Ah evah see
laid in de shade dis day. Hyuh! hyuh!"

"'Deed dey has! Hyuh! hyuh!" echoed Jereboam huskily.

The Mason yard, an hour later, was an active encampment of
rocking-chairs, and a din of conversation floated out over the pink
oleanders, whose tubs had achieved a fresh coat of bright green paint
for the occasion. Mrs. Poly Gifford--a guest of the day--here shone
resplendent.

"The young folks are counting mightily on the dance to-night," observed
Mrs. Livy Stowe of

[Illustration]

Seven Oaks. "Even the Buckner girls have got new ball dresses."

"Improvident, _I_ call it," said Mrs. Gifford. "They can't afford such
things, with Park Hill mortgaged up to the roof the way it is."

Mrs. Mason's soft apologetic alto interposed. "They're sweet girls, and
we're never young but once. I think it was so fine of Mr. Valiant to
offer to give the ball. I hear he's motored to Charlottesville three or
four times for fixings, though I understand he's poor enough since he
gave up his money as he did. What a princely act that was!"

"Ye-e-es," agreed Mrs. Gifford, "but a little--what shall I call
it?--precipitous! If I were married to a man like that I should always
be in terror of his adopting an orphan asylum or turning Republican or
something equally impossible."

"He's good-looking enough for most girls to be willing to risk it,"
returned Mrs. Stowe, "to say nothing of a widow or two I might mention,"
she added cryptically.

"I _believe_ you!" said Mrs. Gifford with emphasis. "We all know who you
mean. Why any woman can't be satisfied with having had _one_ husband, I
can't see."

The other pursed her lips. "I know some women with live husbands, for
that matter," she said, "who, if the truth were told, aren't either.
It's lucky there's no marriage in heaven or there'd be a precious
mix-up before they got through with it!"

"Well," Mrs. Gifford rejoined, "the Bible may say there's no marriage or
giving in marriage in heaven, but if I s