nt home to both
of you, and well it might. Yes, I think I may as well expect him to tea.
He enjoys my scalloped oysters, if I do say it myself."

"We'll get Abby over," said Mr Murchison. "That'll please the Doctor."

"I must say," remarked Stella, "he seems to think a lot more of Abby now
that she's Mrs Episcopal Johnson."

"Yes, Abby and Harry must come," said Mrs Murchison, "and I was thinking
of inviting Mr and Mrs Horace Williams. We've been there till I'm
ashamed to look them in the face. And I've pretty well decided," she
added autocratically, "to have chicken salad. So if Dr Drummond has made
up his mouth for scalloped oysters he'll be disappointed."

"Mother," announced Stella, "I'm perfectly certain you'll have both."

"I'll consider it," replied her mother. "Meanwhile we would be better
employed in thinking of what we have been hearing. That's the third
sermon from the Book of Job in six weeks. I must say, with the whole of
the two Testaments to select from, I don't see why the Doctor should be
so taken up with Job."

Stella was vindicated; Mrs Murchison did have both. The chicken salad
gleamed at one end of the table and the scalloped oysters smoked
delicious at the other. Lorne had charge of the cold tongue and Advena
was entrusted with the pickled pears. The rest of the family were
expected to think about the tea biscuits and the cake, for Lobelia had
never yet had a successor that was any hand with company. Mrs Murchison
had enough to do to pour out the tea. It was a table to do anybody
credit, with its glossy damask and the old-fashioned silver and
best china that Mrs Murchison had brought as a bride to her
housekeeping--for, thank goodness, her mother had known what was what
in such matters--a generous attractive table that you took some
satisfaction in looking at. Mrs Murchison came of a family of noted
housekeepers; where she got her charm I don't know. Six-o'clock tea, and
that the last meal in the day, was the rule in Elgin, and a good enough
rule for Mrs Murchison, who had no patience with the innovation of a
late dinner recently adopted by some people who could keep neither
their servants nor their digestions in consequence. It had been a crisp
October day; as Mr Murchison remarked, the fall evenings were beginning
to draw in early; everybody was glad of the fire in the grate and the
closed curtains. Dr Drummond had come about five, and the inquiries and
comments upon family matters that the