inspirations do. The Marble Hearts would give a dinner-party!

The Marble Hearts were Missy's "crowd," thus named after Tess had
joined it. Of course, said Tess, they must have a name. A
fascinating fount of ideas was Tess's. She declared, now, that they
MUST give a dinner-party, a regular six o'clock function. Life for
the younger set in Cherryvale was so bourgeois, so ennuye. It
devolved upon herself and Missy to elevate it. So, at the next
meeting of the crowd, they would broach the idea. Then they'd make
all the plans; decide on the date and decorations and menu, and who
would furnish what, and where the fete should be held. Perhaps
Missy's house might be a good place. Yes. Missy's dining room was
large, with the porch just outside the windows--a fine place for the
orchestra.

Missy listened eagerly to all the earlier features of the scheme--
she knew Tess could carry any point with the crowd; but about the
last suggestion she felt misgivings. Mother had very strange, old-
fashioned notions about some things. She MIGHT be induced to let
Missy help give an evening dinner-party, though she held that
fifteen-year-old girls should have only afternoon parties; but to be
persuaded to lend her own house for the affair--that would be an
achievement even for Tess!

However miracles continue to happen in this cut-and-dried world.
When the subject was broached to Missy's mother with carefully
considered tact, she bore up with puzzling but heavenly equanimity.
She looked thoughtfully at the two girls in turn, and then gazed out
the window.