n would have dragged pitifully if it had not been for Aunt
Maria's efforts, for the visitors seemed smitten with dumbness, and
beneath no the fire of their glances Darsie's embarrassment increased
rather than diminished. She had no spirit left; a succession of
monosyllables and an occasional "Oh, really!" made up the sum of her
contributions to the conversation. It must have been a strong sense of
duty which nerved Noreen Percival to offer the invitation which
presumably was the object of her visit.

"We want to know if you will come to lunch with us on Thursday, and stay
for the afternoon? If it's fine, we can have some tennis. We will
drive you back after tea."

Darsie hesitated, but apparently the decision was not to be left to her.
Aunt Maria accepted with a gracious acknowledgment of Mrs Percival's
kindness, and in answer to a scowl from Ralph his sisters rose and made
a hasty adieu.

"We came in the governess cart. The pony gets restless--mustn't keep
him waiting. Thank you _so_ much! Goodbye!"

They were gone; the outer door was shut behind them. Darsie, standing
by the tea-table, caught a glimpse of her own reflection in a mirror at
the opposite end of the room, a stiff, Dutch-doll of a figure, with
plastered hair, crimson cheeks, and plain frock. She glanced at Aunt
Maria reseating herself in her high-backed chair, and taking up the
inevitable knitting. Now for it! now for the lecture! Well, after all,
she had in only done what had been suggested, a trifle _more_ perhaps
than had been suggested, but that was erring on the right side, not the
wrong. Besides, if a naughty impulse to annoy and humiliate Aunt Maria
had really existed, in the end she had been a thousand times more
humiliated herself. And now, if you please, she was to be scolded and
lectured into the bargain!

But Aunt Maria neither lectured nor scolded. All through that next hour
when pride kept Darsie chained to her place, the older lady talked in
her most natural manner, and even smiled at her companion across the
patience-board without a flicker of expression to betray that the figure
confronting her was in any way different from the one which she was
accustomed to see.

Once more admiration vanquished irritation, and Darsie roused herself to
join in the problem of "building," and ended in actually feeling a
dawning of interest in what had hitherto appeared the dreariest of
problems. When seven o'clock struck, and the old l