would ask us to your house to spend the evening; Madam Wilcox will
always allow that. But there is no use trying to get her permission
for a party. You _will_ ask us, _won't_ you?"

Whereupon Mrs. Harrison laughed, and shook her head at them, and told
them she was afraid they were naughty girls, and she would have to
think about it. All of which seemed to be entirely satisfactory to
them. The conversation suddenly changed.

"Wasn't Mrs. Marsh dressed in horrid taste today?" said Helen
Harrison. "Really I don't see the use in being worth a million in her
own right, if she has no better taste than _that_ to display. Her
camels'-hair shawl is positively the ugliest thing I ever saw, and
she had it folded horribly. She is round-shouldered, anyhow--ought
never to wear a shawl."

"I think her shawl was better than her hat," chimed in Miss Lily.
"The _idea_ of that hat costing fifty dollars! It isn't as becoming
as her old one; and, to make it look worse than it would have done,
she had her hair arranged in that frightful new twist!"

"Why, Lily Harrison! I heard you tell her you thought her hat was
lovely!" This from Lily's youngest sister.

"Oh, yes, of course," said Miss Lily. "One must say something to
people. It wouldn't do to tell her she looked horrid." And the
mother _laughed_.

"It is a good thing for Mrs. Marsh that she holds her million in her
own right," observed cousin Jim. "That husband of hers is getting a