A visitor is announced. (Enter Mrs. Flynn.)
The usual very sincere compliments, were tossed shuttle-cock fashion from one lady to the other, Mrs. Howe, meanwhile, losing no opportunity to display her new bracelet and settle the folds of her new pelerine, which Mrs. Flynn persistently declined observing.
"I am so tired," groaned Mrs. Howe, at length; "if I am stupid, my dear creature, you really must pardon me, for I have been at Du Pont's all the morning. I bought a few trifles of her, this pelerine, only forty dollars, and this cheap bracelet for fifty. Du Pont never is easy till I give her my opinion of her new millinery."
"She prefers the opinion of one qualified, by experience, to be a judge," said the vexed Flynn, alluding to Dolly's former chrysalis state.
Mrs. Howe bit her lip, and pulling the mouchoir from her pocket, said, "I forgot to show you this seventy-five dollar handkerchief. I did not need any common handkerchiefs, but I bought this to please Du Pont."
"I fancied I had seen that, as well as your pelerine and bracelet at Mrs. Gardiner's party last winter," said the fibbing, irritating Flynn.
"Last winter!"—screamed Mrs. Howe—"my dear creature, I wouldn't wear the same garter two winters."
"O, I must have been thinking of somebody else; pardon me, dear, my memory is so bad. What kind of servants have you, dear? I am so plagued with servants."
"I have no trouble," replied Mrs. Howe, folding her hands complacently over her pelerine, "for I always pay the highest prices." The rising flush on Flynn's face announced this to be a dead shot.
Taking breath again, however, she came gallantly to the rescue.