“I’ll hang myself in the woodshed before spring—­see if I don’t!” and burying her face in her hands, Lucy wept aloud, while Lizzie, lying back upon her pillow, laughed immoderately at her sister’s distress.

“There’s a good deal to laugh at, I think,” said Lucy, more angrily than she usually addressed her sister.  “If you have any pity, do devise some means of getting rid of her, for a time, at least.”

“Well, then,” answered Lizzie, “she wants to go home for a few days, in order to make some necessary preparations for staying with us, and perhaps you can coax her to go now, though I for one would like to have her stay.  Everybody knows she is your cousin, and no one will think less of you for having her here.”

“But I won’t do it,” said Lucy, “and that settles it.  Your plan is a good one, and I’ll get her off—­see if I don’t!”

The next day, which was Saturday, Lucy was unusually kind to her cousin, giving her a collar, offering to fix her cap, and doing numerous other little things, which greatly astonished Berintha.  At last, when dinner was over, she said, “Come, cousin, what do you say to a sleigh ride this afternoon?  I haven’t been down to Elizabeth Betsey’s in a good while, so suppose we go to-day.”

Berintha was taken by surprise, but after a moment she said just what Lucy hoped she would say, viz., that she was wanting to go home for a few days, and if Lizzie were only well enough, she would go now.

“Oh, she is a great deal better,” said Lucy, “and you can leave her as well as not.  Dr. Benton says I am almost as good a nurse as you and I will take good care of her—­besides, I really think you need rest; so go, if you wish to, and next Saturday I will come round after you.”

Accordingly, Berintha, who suspected nothing, was coaxed into going home, and when at three o’clock the sleigh was said to be ready, she kissed Lizzie good-by, and taking her seat by the side of Lucy, was driven rapidly toward her brother’s house.

* * * * *

“There! haven’t I managed it capitally!” exclaimed Lucy, as she reentered her sister’s room after her ride; “but the bother of it is, I’ve promised to go round next Saturday, and bring not only Berintha, but Elizabeth Betsey, and her twins!  Won’t it be horrible!  However, the party’ll be over, so I don’t care.”

Cousin Berintha being gone, there was no longer any reason why the party should be kept a secret, and before nightfall every servant in the house was discussing it, Bridget saying:  “Faith, an’ I thought it was mighty good she was gettin’ with that woman.”

Mrs. Dayton was highly indignant at the trick which she plainly saw had been put upon Berintha, but Lucy only replied, “that she wished it were as easy a matter to get rid of grandma!”

On Monday cards of invitation to the number of one hundred and fifty were issued, and when Lizzie, in looking them over, asked why Ada Harcourt was left out, Lucy replied, that “she guessed she wasn’t going to insult her guests by inviting a sewing girl with them.  Anna Graham could do so, but nobody was going to imitate her.”