"Well, Harry, you know Aunt Maria wants an old-fashioned, early party, at eight o'clock at the latest; and when she says she wants a thing, she means it. She would never forgive us for being late."
"Dear me, Eva, do begin to dress over night then," said Harry. "You certainly never will get through to-morrow, if you don't."
"Harry, you sauce-box, I think you talk abominably about me. Just because I have so many more things to see to than he has! A woman's dress, of course, takes more time; there's a good deal more to do and every little thing has to be just right."
"Of course, I know that," said Harry. "Haven't I stood, and stood, and stood, while bows were tied, and picked out, and patted, and flatted, and then pulled out and tied over, and when we were half an hour behind time already?"
"I fancy," said Alice, "that if the secrets of some young gentlemen's toilets were unveiled, we should see that we were not alone in tying bows and pulling them out. I've known Tom to labor over his neck-ties by the hour together; it took him quite as long to prink as any of us girls."
"But don't you be alarmed, Jim," said Eva; "we intend to be on time."
"No, don't," said Harry; "you can have my writing-table, and get up your editorials, while the conjuration is going on up-stairs."
"Just think," said Alice, "how Aunt Maria is coming out."
"Why, yes, it's a larger affair than usual," said Eva. "A hundred invitations! That must be on account of Angie."
"Oh, yes," said Alice, "Aunt Maria is pluming herself on Angie's engagement. Since she has discovered that Mr. St. John has an independent fortune, there is no end to her praises and felicitations. Oh, and she has altered her opinion entirely about his ritualism. The Bishop, she says, stands by him; and what the Bishop doesn't condemn, nobody has any right to; and then she sets forth what a good family he belongs to, and so well connected! I'd like to see anybody say anything against Mr. St. John's practices before Aunt Maria now!"