"My mother invited her last Sunday."

I didn't like the way he said: "O-o-o-h!" Some way it seemed
insulting to my mother.

"She did it to please me," I said. "There was a Fairy Princess
told me the other day that your girl felt like a stranger, and
that to be a stranger was the hardest thing in all the world.
She sat a little way from the others, and she looked so lonely.
I pulled my mother's sleeve and led her to your girl and made
them shake hands, and then mother HAD to ask her to come to
dinner with us. She always invites every one she meets coming
down the aisle; she couldn't help asking your girl, too. She
said she was expected at home, but she'd come some day and get
acquainted. She needn't if you object. My mother only asked her
because she thought she was lonely, and maybe she wanted to
come."

He sat there staring straight ahead and he seemed to grow whiter,
and older, and colder every minute.

"Possibly she is lonely," he said at last. "This isn't much like
the life she left. Perhaps she does feel herself a stranger. It
was very kind of your mother to invite her. If she wants to
come, I shall make no objections."

"No, but my father will," I said.

He straightened up as if something had hit him.