"Run, Lucy and Grace and Ada and Mary," she called, "and help me bring in the plates. The refreshments are all ready!"
They ran and brought in the plates. Upon each one was placed with dainty care one soda cracker, one withered ginger-snap and one puffy cracknel. The guests took the "refreshments" in dismal silence and began to gnaw.
"But there's no plate for you, my dear," said Mrs. McCoy to the hostess, in a solicitous tone.
"Never mind," returned the little lady, cheerfully; "I ain't hungry, so I guess I can wait till breakfast."
Mrs. Purspyre choked on the puffy cracknel and was saved to the world by a glass of water. Mrs. Herringford thoughtfully brought water for them all.
"You'll find it nice and fresh," she said, with pardonable pride, as she poured the precious fluid with a lavish hand.
"Then it's different from this ginger-snap," remarked Mr. Wogie, nursing a jarred tooth.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" announced Mr. Sherlock, getting upon his feet and waving one arm. "Let us thank Mrs. Herringford for her kind entertainment, which will be a red letter event in our calendar of glorious memories. This dissipation is unusual with us all, but I hope in no case will it prove fatal. Once in a while it is good for stagnant humanity to indulge in high life and cracknels—"
"Bravo!" shouted one of the Naylor girls, who had pocketed her refreshments to carry home as a souvenir.
"Therefore," concluded the orator, "let us leave the glamour and bewildering gaiety of these festivities and seek a more common-place seclusion. Let us thank Mrs. Herringford once again—and go home."