"Mrs. Maitland!" David said, aghast; "Materna, you don't suppose
_she's_ coming, do you?"

"I'm sure I hope so, considering she invited me."

"Great Casar's ghost!" said David, thoughtfully; and added, under
his breath, "I'm betting on his not expecting her. Poor Blair!"

Blair had need of sympathy. His plan for a "dinner" had
encountered difficulties, and he had had moments of racking
indecision; but when, on the toss of a penny, 'heads' declared
for carrying the thing through, he held to his purpose with a
perseverance that was amusingly like his mother's large and
unshakable obstinacies. He had endless talks with Harris as to
food; and with painstaking regard for artistic effect and as far
as he understood it, for convention, he worked out every detail
of service and arrangement. His first effort was to make the room
beautiful; so the crimson curtains were drawn across the windows,
and the cut-glass chandeliers in both rooms emerged glittering
from their brown paper-muslin bags. The table was rather
overloaded with large pieces of silver which Blair had found in
the big silver-chest in the garret; among them was a huge center
ornament, called in those days an epergne--an extraordinary
arrangement of prickly silver leaves and red glass cups which
were supposed to be flowers. It was black with disuse, and Blair
made Harris work over it until the poor fellow protested that he
had rubbed the skin off his thumb--but the pointed leaves of the
great silver thistle sparkled like diamonds. Blair was charmingly
considerate of old Harris so long as it required no sacrifice on
his own part, but he did not relinquish a single piece of silver