am in a tremor over this dinner, you know. It is a maiden effort. By the
way, Flemming, I wish you'd forget what I said about Miss Denham, last
evening. I was all wrong."

"I told you so; what has happened?"

"Nothing. Only I have reconsidered the matter, and I see I was wrong to
let it upset me."

"I saw that from the first."

"Some persons," said Lynde gayly, "always see everything from the first.
You belong to the I-told-you-so family, only you belong to the cheerful
branch."

"Thank the Lord for that! A wide-spreading, hopeful disposition is your
only true umbrella in this vale of tears."

"I shall have to borrow yours, then, if it rains heavily, for I've none
of my own."

"Take it, my boy; my name's on the handle!"

On finishing their coffee the young men lighted cigars and sallied forth
for a stroll along the bank of the river, which they followed to the
confluence of the Rhone with the Arve, stopping on the way to leave an
order at a florist's. Returning to the hotel some time after mid-day,
they found the flowers awaiting them in Lynde's parlor, where a servant
was already laying the cloth. There were bouquets for the ladies'
plates, an imposing centre-piece in the shape of a pyramid, and a