“I shall tell her nothing of the kind.”

“You can say no less, if you tell her the truth.”

“My dear, you are angry.  Let’s not talk about it any more to-night.  You will feel differently about it in the morning.”

Of course, Mrs. Belcher went to bed in tears, cried over it until she went to sleep, and woke in the morning submissive, and quietly determined to yield to her husband’s wishes.  Of course, Mr. Belcher was not late in informing Mrs. Dillingham that his wife would be most happy to accept her proposition.  Of course, Mrs. Dillingham lost no time in sending her card to all the gentlemen she had ever met, with the indorsement, “Receives on New Year’s with Mrs. Col.  Belcher, ——­ Fifth Avenue.”  Of course, too, after the task was accomplished, she called on Mrs. Belcher to express her gratitude for the courtesy, and to make suggestions about the entertainment.  Was it quite of course that Mrs. Belcher, in the presence of this facile woman, overflowing with kind feeling, courteous deference, pleasant sentiment and sparkling conversation, should feel half ashamed of herself, and wonder how one so good and bright and sweet could so have moved her to anger?

The day came at last, and at ten Mrs. Dillingham entered the grand drawing-room in her queenly appareling.  She applauded Mrs. Belcher’s appearance, she kissed the children, all of whom thought her the loveliest lady they had ever seen, and in an aside to Mr. Belcher cautioned him against partaking too bountifully of the wines he had provided for his guests.  “Let us have a nice thing of it,” she said, “and nothing to be sorry for.”

Mr. Belcher was faithfully in her leading.  It would have been no self-denial for him to abstain entirely for her sake.  He would do anything she wished.

There was one thing noticeable in her treatment of the lads of the family, and in their loyalty to her.  She could win a boy’s heart with a touch of her hand, a smile and a kiss.  They clung to her whenever in her presence.  They hung charmed upon all her words.  They were happy to do anything she desired; and as children see through shams more quickly than their elders, it could not be doubted that she had a genuine affection for them.  A child addressed the best side of her nature, and evoked a passion that had never found rest in satisfaction, while her heartiness and womanly beauty appealed to the boy nature with charms to which it yielded unbounded admiration and implicit confidence.

The reception was a wonderful success.  Leaving out of the account the numbers of gentlemen who came to see the revived glories of the Palgrave mansion, there was a large number of men who had been summoned by Mrs. Dillingham’s cards—­men who undoubtedly ought to have been in better business or in better company.  They were men in good positions—­clergymen, merchants, lawyers, physicians, young men of good families—­men whose wives and mothers and sisters entertained an uncharitable opinion of that lady; but for this one courtesy of a year the men would not be called to account.  Mrs. Dillingham knew them all at sight, called each man promptly by name, and presented them all to her dear friend Mrs. Belcher, and then to Col.  Belcher, who, dividing his attention between the drawing-room and the dining-room, played the host with rude heartiness and large hospitality.