“I regret to say she has, but she may return.  She promised me faithfully to come to church on Sunday, and I called at the lodge on my way up to leave her a little basket of fruit and flowers, and to remind her of her promise.  Mrs. Tester said she had left her, but might return again.  I hope so, and that I may be the means of helping her, for the poor child’s face disturbs me.”

“I trust your wish may never be realized,” murmured Mrs. Bertram, under her breath.  Aloud she said cheerfully, “I must show you my bed of pansies, Rector.  They are really quite superb.”

CHAPTER XIX.

THE RECTOR’S GARDEN PARTY.

A few days after the tennis party at the Manor, at which Bertram had talked a good deal to Beatrice, and in a very marked way snubbed Matty Bell, the Rector gave his customary annual treat.  He gave this treat every year, and it was looked upon by high and low alike as the great event of the merry month of August.  The treat lasted for two days, the first day being devoted to the schools and the humble parishioners, the second to the lads and lasses, the well-to-do matrons and their spouses, who formed the better portion of his parishioners.

Every soul in the place, however, from the poorest fisherman’s child to the wealthy widow, Mrs. Meadowsweet, wag expected to come to the Rectory to be feasted and petted, and made much of, at Mr. Ingram’s treat.

With the small scholars and the fishermen and their wives, and all the humbler folk of the place, this story has nothing to do.  But it would not be a true chronicle of Northbury if it did not concern itself with the Jenkinses and their love affairs, with Mrs. Gorman Stanley and her furniture, with Mrs. Morris and her bronchitis, with Mrs. Butler and her adorable sister, Miss Peters, and last, but not least, with that young, naive, and childish heart which beat in the breast of Matty Bell.

There are the important people in all histories, and such a place in this small chronicle must the Bertrams hold, and the Meadowsweets.  But Matty, too, had her niche, and it was permitted to her to pull some not unimportant wires in this puppet show.

It is not too strong a word to say that Matty, Alice and Sophy Bell, received their invitation to play tennis at the Manor with a due sense of jubilation.  Matty wore the shot silk which had been partly purchased by the sale of good Mrs. Bell’s engagement ring.  This silk had been made, at home, but, with the aid of a dressmaker young Susan Pettigrew, who had served her time to the Perrys.  Susan had made valuable suggestions, which had been carried into effect, with the result that the shot silk was provided with two bodies—­a high one for morning wear, and one cut in a modest, demi-style for evening festivities.  The evening body had elbow-sleeves, which were furnished with raffles of coffee-colored lace, and, when put on, it revealed the contour of a rather nice plump little throat, and altogether made Matty Bell look nicer than she had ever looked in anything else before.