'Yes; and Dora will manage that nicely too, the table will not be too
high for her to reach, and she will be very happy to be able to wait
on her little class. And they are to have tea and cake, instead of
dinner, for we do not want to have more cooking than can be helped,
that people may not be prevented from going to church, and the
children will be thirsty after being in church all the morning.'

'But we have a dinner-party, do not we?' said Katherine.

'Yes, but our youth and innocence will save us from being much
plagued by it,' said Elizabeth.

'Oh! I thought you and Anne at least would dine with the company,'
said Katherine.

'So Mamma thought,' said Elizabeth; 'but then she recollected that if
we did, and not Harriet, Mrs. Hazleby would be mortally offended; and
when we came to reckon, it appeared that there would be thirteen
without us, and then Papa and I persuaded her, that it would be much
less uncivil to leave out all the Misses, than to take one and leave
the rest. You know Anne and I are both under seventeen yet, so that
nobody will expect to see us.'

'Only thirteen people?' said Katherine; 'I thought the Bishop was to
dine and sleep here.'

'Oh no, that was settled long ago; Papa found he had engaged to go to
Marlowe Court,' said Elizabeth, 'and so there was room for the
Hazlebys; I hoped he would have guarded us from them.'