"'Ossa on Pelion piled!' from your countenance," said the volatile bridesmaid.
Ida read it aloud. "Villet is with Thornton. Will your plans undergo any alteration in consequence?
"M. L."
"Josephine is the loose screw, Emma spoke of. I would gladly add M. Villet and Anna to my train—"
"Do it, and let her fret!" exclaimed Ellen.
"Oh, no!" said Emma, involuntarily.
"I cannot!" said Ida. She wrote upon the reverse of the billet—"Unless you object, the original order will be preserved."
There were no happier beings present that evening, than the acting host and hostess, and Carry and Arthur.
"I had resigned myself to Ida's perpetual spinsterdom," said Carry to her schoolmates. "She rejected several good offers from no apparent cause; and I imagined she had a prejudice against matrimony."
"She was very indifferent upon the subject;" said Anna. "She was a mystery to many. But those deathless friendships between ladies and gentlemen, are always suspicious, and I predicted how this one would end."