eel
a mental picture was presented of a ship ploughing across the seas,
bearing a lonely emigrant to his difficult task, when it became, all of
a sudden, contemptible beyond words to fret oneself about--a ribbon! As
she herself had said, having once come face to face with tragedy, her
eyes were opened to the petty nature of her own trials. She ironed and
pressed, and viewing the shabby bows and insufficient ends, said
bravely: "Who cares? It will be all the same in a hundred years!"

Jill wished to know exactly how late the party would be kept up, and if
there was to be a sit-down supper. "I loathe `light refreshments' like
we have at breaks up. Bitter lemonade and sangwidges--who wants
sangwidges? I like to sit down, and have courses, and stay as long as
you like, and crackers, with things in them." When asked how she
proposed to amuse the company when her turn came round, she shrugged her
shoulders, and replied, "Haven't the faintest idea! Shall think of
something, I suppose," in true Jill-like, happy-go-lucky fashion.

Pam sat glued to the window, and kept an unerring record of everything
which entered the Vanburgh house for two days before the fray. Baskets
from the fruiterer's, trays from the confectioner's; mysterious paper
boxes from the Stores; flowers from the florist's; they were all
registered in her accurate little brain, and described at length to her
sisters.

"Couldn't you bring me back somefing nice?" she pleaded wistfully.
"Sweets--or a cracker--or a very pretty cake with icing on it?"--and
though Betty proved adamant, Jill succumbed.

"What are pouches for if you can't carry things in them?" she demanded.
"My party body has a huge pouch. I'll bring you samples, Pam, and if
there are enough, we'll share them together!"

When the great night arrived, Miles was decidedly short as to temper,
but he looked so tall and imposing in his dress suit, that Cynthia's
designation of "man" seemed nothing but his due. Like all male beings,
he seemed to regard the behaviour of his tie and shirt front as the only
things of importance in the universe, and so completely engrossed was he
thereby that he had only an absent, "Oh, all right!" to return to
Betty's anxious inquiries as to her own appearance.

They crossed the road together, three ungainly-looking figures in
ulsters and snow-shoes, and were admitted to the Vanburgh hall, which
was instinct with the air of festivity. Flowers everywhere, plants