Mentally resolving not to tell him if she did, Ella ran up to her
room, where, leaving her morning dress in the middle of the floor,
and donning a handsome plaid silk, she descended again to the
parlor, and suggested to her husband the propriety of bringing the
young ladies home with her to dinner, alleging, as one reason,
that "there was no use of having a silver dining set and nice
things, unless there was somebody to see them."

"And am not _I_ somebody?" asked Mr. Hastings, playfully
winding his arm around the little creature, who answered, "Why,
yes--but mama never thought it worth her while always to have
_the best things_ and fix up when there was no one to dinner
but us and father; and I don't think I need to be so particular as
when I was Ella Grey and you were Mr. Hastings, for now I am your
wife, and you are---"

Here she paused, while she stooped down to caress a huge
Newfoundland dog, which came bounding in. Then, remembering she
had not finished her sentence, she added after a moment, "And you
are _only Howard!_"

Silenced, if not convinced, Mr. Hastings walked away, wondering if
every husband, at the expiration of fifteen months, reached the
enviable position of being "only Howard!" Half an hour later, and
Ella Hastings, having left orders with Mrs. Leah for a "company
dinner," was riding down the shaded avenue into the highway, where
she bade the coachman drive in the direction of Locust Grove.