!"

"Well, we won't put any sugar in," said Mona, pleasantly; "but I think
the cream improves it. You like it, don't you, Jenny?"

"Heavenly!" said Jenny, rolling her eyes up with such a comically
blissful expression that Elise nearly choked.

As Patty had agreed, the luncheon was good and substantial, rather
than elaborate. The broiled chicken, dainty vegetables, and pretty
salad all met the guests' hearty approval and appreciation; and when
the ice cream was served, Mrs. Greene discovered she had both a fork
and a spoon at her disposal.

"Well, I never!" she observed. "Ain't that handy, now? I s'pose you
take whichever one you like."

"Yes," said Mona. "You see, there is strawberry sauce for the ice
cream, and that makes it seem more like a pudding."

"So it does, so it does," agreed Mrs. Greene, "though, land knows, it
ain't much like the puddin's I'm accustomed to. Cottage, rice, and
bread is about the variety we get, in the puddin' line. Not but what
I'm mighty grateful to get those."

"I like chocolate pudding," said Jenny, in a low voice, and apparently
with great effort. Patty knew she made the remark because she thought
it her duty to join in the conversation; and she felt such heroism
deserved recognition.

"So do I," she said, smiling kindly at Jenny. "In fact, I like
anything with chocolate in it."

"So do I," returned Jenny, a little bolder under this expressed
sympathy of tastes. "Once I had a whole box of chocolate candies,--a
pound box it was. I've got the box yet. I'm awful careful of the lace
paper."

"I often get boxes of candy," said Celeste, unable to repress this bit
of vanity. "My customers give them to me."

"My," said Jenny, "that must be fine. Is it grand to be a manicure?"

"I like it," said Celeste, "because it takes me among nice people.
They're mostly good to me."

"My ladies are nice to me, too," observed Anna. "I only sew in nice
houses. But I don't see the ladies much. It's different with you, Miss
Arleson."

"Well, I don't see nice ladies," broke in Jenny. "My, how those queens
of society can snap at you! Seems 'if they blame me for everything:
the stock, the price, the slow cash boys,--whatever bothers 'em, it's
all my fault."

"That is unkind," said Clementine. "But shopping does make some people
cross."

"Indeed it does!" returned Jenny. "But I'm going to forget it just for
to-day. When I sit here and see these things, all so beautiful and
sparkly and bright, I