"Don't you wish you knew?" said Kat, with an unfriendly grimace.
"I do, indeed; and what's more I'm going to find out, because you will tell me, won't you, Posy?" said the new-comer, appealing to Bea, by the nickname which her prettily-colored cheeks had won from him.
"Oh, yes, of course; and you must make yourself useful. I'm going to give a little company for Miss Barnett," said Bea, with a friendly nod, to make up for Kat's ungraciousness.
"So-ho, a party, and we are all going to make our début, are we?" asked Ralph, swinging himself into the open window, and taking a seat on the sill, with an air of interest. "Good! Tell me what you want done, and I'm ready, Posy."
"We'd like to have you take yourself off, somewhere, and stay till the day after the party," was Kat's uncomplimentary remark.
"And I would like to oblige you, my dear, but I couldn't stay away from you that long," retorted Ralph.
"I'm not your dear, shut up;" cried Kat, flapping her hat, and scowling at the handsome, laughing face.
"There," cried Bea, with a suddenly exhausted air. "I don't see any way of filling that big space between the windows in the back parlor. Dear me, I wish there was more furniture."
"Bring the piano in," advised Ralph. "That's just exactly the place for it, and it ought to be in here on such an occasion."
"Goodness! To be sure, but there's the expense of moving," exclaimed Bea with a longing sigh. "And it would have to go back, of course."