“She may request as much as she likes; I’m not going! I wouldn’t go if I were paid for it!” was Miles’ ungallant comment upon receipt of Mrs Vanburgh’s invitation; but before he had time to pen his refusal, Cynthia, in her new character of , issued her regal decree that it should be turned into an acceptance. In vain he and protested; the silken chains never relaxed their hold.  
“Hate parties! Senseless waste of time.”
 
“It would be kind of you to help to make it more profitable.”
 
“I’ve no parlour tricks—and don’t see the fun of making a performing bear of myself among a lot of strangers.”
 
“It would be to refuse, and allow your sisters to go alone! I’ve always longed for a brother to take me about. A nice man is always considerate to girls.”
 
Miles .
 
“If I did go, they wouldn’t speak to me all the evening! I never know what to say to strangers. I should have to sit in a corner by myself. There’ll be a crowd of girls—you, and Betty, and Mrs Vanburgh’s sisters, and who knows how many more?”
 
Cynthia bowed her head in stately .
 
“You would not be ungallant enough to that there could be too many! It will be your proud privilege to introduce a masculine element into the assembly.”
 
“Humph!”
 
“It likewise appears probable to me that Mrs Vanburgh may know a few nice men besides yourself.”
 
Betty would have said “boys,” Cynthia knew better, and reaped her reward in Miles’ wavering air.
 
“Couldn’t entertain a party for one minute, let alone ten.”
 
“We will go into then, and do it together! Ten minutes instead of five. We’ll be confederates, and show them tricks. I know a lovely one about telling the time from the position of a —no! How silly I am, I always give away the secret! You tell a card, not the hour. It’s quite easy. You have an imaginary clock face on the hearthrug; twelve o’clock is the fire, and you lay the poker on the rug with the point on the number you want—one, two, three and so on, up to queen. For king, you simply hold it in your hand, which puzzles them more than ever.”
 
“What about the suits?”
 
“Oh, that’s quite easy. When the person outside comes in, he must notice first of all how his confederate is looking; to the left means hearts; to the right, diamonds; , clubs; downward, spades. It’s really a lovely trick. We’ll rehearse it, and I’m sure you must know many more.”
 
“I know some balancing tips,—Georgia Magnet business. You might be the Magnetic Lady, and I’d be the showman.”
 
“Oh, lovely, lovely! Could you teach me really? Could I lift up a table with two or three men sitting on it, like you see in the advertisements?” cried Cynthia , and though Miles replied, “Rather not!” he to state one or two less which she might safely accomplish, and even to put her through a preliminary drilling on the spot.
 
The battle was won! For the next week Mrs Vanburgh’s party was the one subject of discussion with the Trevor sisters. Betty was on the subject of her dress, and being denied a new sash, into gloom for the space of ten minutes, when with a sudden turn of the wheel a mental picture was presented of a ship ploughing across the seas, bearing a lonely to his difficult task, when it became, all of a sudden, beyond words to oneself about—a ribbon! As she herself had said, having once come face to face with tragedy, her eyes were opened to the petty nature of her own trials. She ironed and pressed, and viewing the shabby bows and ends, said bravely: “Who cares? It will be all the same in a hundred years!”
 
Jill wished to know exactly how late the party would be kept up, and if there was to be a sit-down supper. “I ‘light refreshments’ like we have at breaks up. Bitter lemonade and sangwidges—who wants sangwidges? I like to sit down, and have courses, and stay as long as you like, and , with things in them.” When asked how she proposed to amuse the company when her turn came round, she her shoulders, and replied, “Haven’t the faintest idea! Shall think of something, I suppose,” in true Jill-like, happy-go-lucky fashion.
 
Pam sat glued to the window, and kept an unerring record of everything which entered the Vanburgh house for two days before the . Baskets from the fruiterer’s, trays from the confectioner’s; mysterious paper boxes from the Stores; flowers from the florist’s; they were all registered in her accurate little brain, and described at length to her sisters.
 
“Couldn’t you bring me back somefing nice?” she pleaded wistfully. “Sweets—or a cracker—or a very pretty cake with icing on it?”—and though Betty proved , Jill .
 
“What are for if you can’t carry things in them?” she demanded. “My party body has a huge . I’ll bring you samples, Pam, and if there are enough, we’ll share them together!”
 
When the great night arrived, Miles was decidedly short as to temper, but he looked so tall and in his dress suit, that Cynthia’s designation of “man” seemed nothing but his due. Like all male beings, he seemed to regard the behaviour of his tie and shirt front as the only things of importance in the universe, and so completely was he that he had only an absent, “Oh, all right!” to return to Betty’s anxious as to her own appearance.
 
They crossed the road together, three ungainly-looking figures in ulsters and snow-shoes, and were admitted to the Vanburgh hall, which was instinct with the air of festivity. Flowers everywhere, plants banked up in the background, servants to wave you forward; more servants to greet you at the head of the staircase, to help you to unwrap in the bedroom, and make you feel ashamed that your tweed coat was not an opera , like the charming displayed on the bed!
 
In the drawing-room quite a number of guests were assembled, and Miles was relieved to discover that he was by no means the only member of his sex. Betty’s first shyness died away ............