sebud Tea," in spite of her
raillery and the threatened possibility of our exclusion, promising not
only to assist her with the invitations, but to be more than careful at
the Bank in avoiding serious mistakes in his balances--so as to be on
hand promptly at four. Moreover, if Jack had a sweetheart--and there
was no question of it, or ought not to be--and Corinne had another,
what would be better than bringing them all down together, so that Miss
Felicia could look them over, and Miss Ruth and the Major could get
better acquainted, especially Jack and Miss Felicia; and more especially
Jack and himself.

Miss Felicia's proposal having therefore been duly carried out, with
a number of others not thought of when the tea was first
discussed--including some pots of geraniums in the window, red, of
course, to match the color of Peter's room--and the freshening up of
certain swiss curtains which so offended Miss Felicia's ever-watchful
eyes that she burst out with: "It is positively disgraceful, Peter, to
see how careless you are getting--" At which Mrs. McGuffey blushed to
the roots of her hair, and washed them herself that very night before
she closed her eyes. The great day having arrived, I say the tea-table
was set with Peter's best, including "the dearest of silver teapots"
that Miss Felicia had given him for special occasions; the table covered
with a damask cloth and all made ready for the arrival of her guests.
This done, the lady returned to her own room, from which she emerged
an hour later in a soft gray silk relieved by a film of old lace at her
throat, blending into the tones of her gray hair brushed straight up
from her forehead and worn high over a cushion, the whole topped by a
tiny jewel which caught the light like a drop of dew.

And a veritable grand dame she looked, and was, as she took her seat and
awaited the arrival of her guests--in bearing, in the way she moved her
head; in the way she opened her fan--in the selection of the fan itself,
for that matter. You felt it in the color and length of her gloves; the
size of her pearl ear rings (not too large, and yet not too small), in
the choice of the few rings that encircled her slender and now somewhat
shrunken fingers (one hoop of gold had a history that the old French
Ambassador could have told if he wanted to, so Peter once hinted to
me)--everything she did in fact betrayed a wide acquaintance with the
great world and its requirements and exactions.