e,
all abeam with complacent delight. What a comfort it was that she had
so soon returned to her senses!

"Has she gone? Really gone! What a relief!"

"She's coming again! She said she would. Thank goodness for that!"

"Mrs Vanburgh, you--you can't mean it! She was a horror! You can't
possibly want to see her again! She was as cross as two sticks because
she had come once, so why should she try it a second time?"

"She didn't understand, and it was a shock to find us all so young.
Yes, of course I want her! She's just the sort I do want; the happy,
prosperous ones have no need of me. Oh, did you see her poor grey
face?"

Betty shivered dramatically.

"I did! It made me think of vinegar and, lemon-juice, and all the sour
things you can think of mixed together. Her lips were so thin you could
hardly see them at all, and they turned right down at the corners."

"She was pretty once, prettier than any of us--her features are perfect
still. She's worried, and ill, and badly dressed. Did you see her
blouse?"

"Yes!" Betty sighed sententiously. "It was such a comfort to me. I'd
been feeling so grumpy because my own was horrid compared to yours, but
when I saw that grey flannel atrocity I felt I ought to be thankful
instead?"

Nan laughed happily.

"Then she did you good too? That's all right. Girls, I'm hungry. This
has been a most exhausting afternoon. I don't think there is a chance
of anyone else coming, so hadn't we better go downstairs and eat up some
of the good things ourselves? How do you feel?"

There was no doubt about the girls' feelings. They might have been
starving, from the alacrity with which they sprang from their seats,
followed their hostess downstairs, and seated themselves at the dining-
table.

"We will not wait any longer, Johnson. Bring in fresh tea and coffee,
and then you can leave us. We will attend to ourselves," said Nan to
the solemn-faced butler; and, as soon as he had departed, "Isn't it just
wonderful how servants contrive to keep their faces straight?" she cried
laughingly. "I've no doubt they are all laughing themselves ill
downstairs at the collapse of my great `At Home,' but Johnson looks as
if it were the most correct thing in the world for three people to sit
down to a table laid for a dozen! I'll carve, and you can pour out.
Now for the chicken and ham--now for the gay Sally Lunn! Eat, my
darlings, eat! Do without dinner for one night, and sav