Delights us. Rapine, avarice, expense,
This is idolatry; and these we adore:
Plain living and high thinking are no more:
The homely beauty of the good old cause
Is gone; our peace, our fearful innocence.
And pure religion breathing household laws.
--WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.






CHAPTER I

"Annie, what are you doing? Polishing the ramekins? Oh, that's
right. Did the extra ramekins come from Mrs. Brown? Didn't! Then as
soon as the children come back I'll send for them; I wish you'd
remind me. Did Mrs. Binney come? and Lizzie? Oh, that's good. Where
are they? Down in the cellar! Oh, did the extra ice come? Will you
find out, Annie? Those can wait. If it didn't, the mousse is ruined,
that's all! No, wait, Annie, I'll go out and see Celia myself."

Little Mrs. George Carew, flushed and excited, crossed the pantry as
she spoke, and pushed open the swinging door that connected it with
the kitchen. She was a pretty woman, even now when her hair, already
dressed, was hidden under snugly pinned veils and her trim little
figure lost under a flying kimono. Mrs. Carew was expecting the
twenty-eight members of the Santa Paloma Bridge Club on this
particular evening, and now, at three o'clock on a beautiful April