"I told you so!" said Paul, triumphantly.
"Oh, Paul! you might be a woman," replied Sally, with mocking laughter. "But listen; Miss Webster is as nice as she looks! Can you want more?"
"It's a good thing to be young and enthusiastic."
"Certainly better than being old and cynical," retorted Sally, saucily.
The next morning's post brought a crested envelope, directed in a dashing hand, to Sally, inviting Paul and herself to dinner at the Court on the following evening.
"We shall be simply a family party," wrote the lady; "but, with such near neighbours, I thought it more friendly to invite you for the first time quite informally."
"You don't want to go!" exclaimed Paul, who felt the meshes of the society net closing round him.
"Of course I do. I want to see your house, and to feel what it would be like to live there."
"I don't believe you have a proper frock to go in. A coat and skirt won't do."
"What nonsense! I've an evening dress, of a sort; and they don't invite my frock, but me!"