But oh, it's certainly too
provoking! Why, of all days in the year, should she drop down on us
to-day, when this is the first time she has been here since we were
out of the nursery!"
"I'm afraid there's nothing left for us to do but to keep up the old
traditions, and entertain her in the best style we can, dears," said
Agnes, gently. "Poor mamma's best friend must be showed the
hospitality that she always found here. But, oh, girls, I _did_ hope
to finish that book to-day! It may be weeks before I'm keyed up to
the pitch again where I feel equal to writing the climax as it should
be done."
There were tears in Wilma's eyes as she carried the lunch-basket into
the pantry, but she giggled as, passing the old portraits on the
stairs, as they went up to dress, Claribel shook her fist in their
faces.
"That's what we get for having the latch-string of our ancestors in
our keeping," she exclaimed. "It's pretty well frayed out by this
time, and cannot stand many more strains like this. It seems to me
that we are sort of acting a lie. Mam Daphne will wait on the table
to-day, and Mrs. Gorham will see what a spread we have, and will think
that we live that way all the time."
"Well," said Wilma, hopefully, "we will live that way all the time
when sister's 'Romance of Carrington' is published.
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