CHAPTER XX.
THE INAUGURAL SOIREE.
"Oh, Lord Silverdale," cried Lillie exultantly when he made his usual visit the next afternoon. "At last I have an unexceptional candidate. We shall get under weigh at last. I am so pleased because papa keeps bothering about that inaugural soirée. You know he is staying in town expressly for it. But what is the matter?—You don't seem to be glad at my news."
"I am afraid you will be grieved at mine," he replied gravely. "Look at this in to-day's Moon."
Sobered by his manner, she took the paper. Then her face grew white. She read, in large capitals:
"The Old Maids' Club.
"Interview with the President.
"Sensational Stories of Skittish Spinsters.
"Wee Winnie and Lillie Dulcimer."
"I called at the Old Maids' Club yesterday," writes a Moon woman, "to get some wrinkles, which ought to be abundant in such a Club, though they are not. Miss Dulcimer, the well-known authoress, is one of the loveliest and jolliest girls of the day. Of course I went as a candidate, with a trumped-up story about my unhappy past, which Miss Dulcimer will, I am sure, forgive me, in view of the fact that it was the only way of making her talk freely for the benefit of my readers."
Lillie's eye glanced rapidly down the collection of distortions. Then she dropped the Moon.
"This is outrageous," she said. "I can never forgive her."
"Why, is this the candidate you were telling me about?" asked Silverdale in deeper concern.