delinquent Aunt-Mary-in-law."

LAWTON, shaking hands with him: "O Roberts! Is that you? It's
astonishing how little one makes of the husband of a lady who gives a
dinner. In my time--a long time ago--he used to carve. But
nowadays, when everything is served a la Russe, he might as well be
abolished. Don't you think, on the whole, Roberts, you'd better not
have come

ROBERTS: "Well, you see, I had no excuse. I hated to say an
engagement when I hadn't any."

LAWTON: "Oh, I understand. You WANTED to come. We all do, when
Mrs. Roberts will let us." He goes and sits down by MRS. ROBERTS,
who has taken a more provisional pose on the sofa. "Mrs. Roberts,
you're the only woman in Boston who could hope to get people, with a
fireside of their own--or a register--out to a Christmas dinner. You
know I still wonder at your effrontery a little?"

MRS. ROBERTS, laughing: "I knew I should catch you if I baited my
hook with your old friend."

LAWTON: "Yes, nothing would have kept me away when I heard Bemis was
coming. But he doesn't seem so inflexible in regard to me. Where is
he?"

MRS. ROBERTS: "I'm sure I don't know. I'd no idea I was giving such
a formal dinner. But everybody, beginning with my own aunt, seems to
think it a ceremonious occasion. There are only to be twelve. Do
you know the Millers?"