, my dear,' sighed Miss Martha, 'and it's easy to
laugh at a stupid old woman like me.'

"Now this was rather unfair, for I had only taken to banter on these
occasions because a serious treatment of the subject had failed. I
made my peace, however, by grave and affectionate assurances that I
wished to come, and would like to come; and by adding a solemn promise
that if I felt averse from it when the time came, I would stay at
home.

"I was vexed to find symptoms of the old misunderstanding arising. The
good ladies were evidently in a fidgety humour to-day, and going home
full of it, I poured out my vexation to Fatima.

"Fatima's composure was not so easily ruffled as mine. She was apt to
sit in easy, graceful attitudes, looking very idle, but getting
through a wonderful amount of exquisite needlework, and listening to
my passing grievances without being much disturbed herself.

"'I don't think I would worry myself,' she said, as she rapidly sorted
the greens for a leaf in her embroidery. 'My idea is, that you will
find the party more lively than usual. I have often noticed that when
the old ladies are particularly full of apologies, something or
somebody is expected.'

"'I didn't want anything or anybody,' I said, dolefully; 'but I wish
they wouldn't take fancies, and I wish they wouldn't put one through
such cross-examinations about nothing. As to the party, who could
there be, but the old set?'

"'Nobody, I suppose. There'll be the Wilkinsons, of course;' and
Fatima marked the fact with an emphatic stitch. 'And Mr. Ward, I
suppose, and Dr. Brown, and the Jones's girls, and--'

"'Oh, the rooms wouldn't hold more!' I said.

"'There's always room for one more--for a gentleman at any rate; and,
depend upon it, it is as I say.'

"Fatima was not so fond of the Misses Brooke as I was. She did not
scruple to complain of the trouble it cost to maintain intimate
relations with the excellent but touchy old ladies, and of the hot
water about trifles into which one must perpetually fall.

"'I hope I am pretty trustworthy,' she would say, 'and I am sure you
are, Mary. And if we are not, let them drop our acquaintance. But they
treat their friends as we used to treat our flowers at Reka Dom! They
are always taking them up to see how they are going on, and I like to
vegetate in peace.'

"I could not have criticized my dear and respected old friends so
freely; but yet I knew that Fatima only spoke the truth.

"The subj