annot mean what you are saying!"

She stared across the table in her most dignified and awe-inspiring
fashion, but Cornelia refused to meet her eyes, devoting her entire
attention to the consumption of her breakfast.

"You bet I do!"

"Cornelia, how often must I beg you not to use that exceedingly
objectionable expression? I ask you a simple question; please answer it
without exaggeration. Why do you object to accompany me to these two
parties?"

"Because it's a waste of time. It's against my principles to have the
same tooth drawn six times over. I know all I want to about tea-parties
in England, and I'm ready to pass on to something fresh. I'd go clean
crazed if I'd to sit through that performance again."

"I am sorry you have been so bored. I hoped you had enjoyed yourself,"
said Miss Briskett, stiffly, but with an underlying disappointment in
her tone, which Cornelia was quick to recognise. The imps of temper and
obstinacy which had peeped out of her golden eyes suddenly disappeared
from view, and she nodded a cheery reassurement.

"I wasn't a mite bored at the start. I loved going round with you and
seeing your friends, but I _have_ seen them, and they've seen me, and we
said all we want to, so that trick is played out. You can't go on
drinking tea with the same old ladies all the days of your life? Why
can't they hit on something fresh?"

Miss Briskett did not reply. She was indeed too much upset for words.
Tea-drinking was the only form of dissipation in which she and her
friends indulged, or had indulged for many years past. In more
energetic days an occasional dinner had varied the monotony, but as time
crept on there seemed a dozen reasons for dropping the more elaborate
form of entertainment. A dinner-party upset the servants; it
necessitated the resurrection of the best dinner-service from the china
cupboard, and the best silver from the safe; it entailed late hours, a
sense of responsibility, the exertion of entertaining. How much simpler
to buy a sixpenny jar of cream and a few shillings worth of cake welcome
your friends at half-past four, and be free at half-past five to lie
down on the sofa, and have a nap before dressing for dinner!

Miss Briskett had counted on a protracted orgy of tea-parties in her
niece's honour, and had already planned a return bout on her own accord,
to set the ball rolling a second time. Her wildest flight of fancy had
not soared beyond tea, and here was