“And you’ll never regret it, father,” she cried, with an enthusiasm that satisfied him, “for these young people will all repay you a thousand-fold, I do believe, in the time to come.”

“Don’t I know it?” cried Mr. King, getting out of his chair hastily to pace the floor.  “Goodness me! they repay me already.  They’re fine young things, every one of them—­Whitneys, Peppers and my boy—­as fine as they are made.  And whoever says they’re not, doesn’t know a good piece of work when it’s before his eyes.  Bless me!” pulling out his handkerchief to mop his face violently, “I don’t want to see any finer.”

“I hope I shall have a sight of Jasper’s and Polly’s faces when you tell them what you intend to do,” said Mrs. Whitney; “where are your cards, father?”

“Tell them?  I shan’t tell them at all,” cried the old gentleman; “I’m going to have a surprise, too.  No one must know it but you and Mrs. Pepper.”

“Oh!” said Mrs. Whitney.  “It was very stupid in me not to understand that.  It will be all right, father; Mrs. Pepper and I will keep our secret, you needn’t fear.”

“If you can only keep her out of the way,” exclaimed Mr. King, pointing irascibly in the direction of Mrs. Chatterton’s apartments, “all will be well.  But I doubt if you can; her meddlesome ears and tongue will be at work as usual,” he added in extreme vexation.

“Here comes Jasper,” exclaimed Mrs. Whitney, which had the satisfactory result of bringing her father out of his irritation, into a flutter over the concealment of the party preparations.

“Jasper,” cried Polly that evening, as they ran into the music-room to play a duet, “we’re all right about everything now, as your father says we may invite the girls and your friends.”

“And he said when I asked him if we ought not to have cake and coffee, ‘I’ll attend to that,’” said Jasper, “so everything is all straight as far as I can see, Polly.”

“The private boxes trouble me, I must confess,” said Polly, drumming absently on the keys, while Jasper spread the sheet of music on the rack.  “You know there must be two; one for dear Mr. King and one for the boys as guests of honor.  Now how shall we manage them?”

She took her hand off suddenly from the keys and folded it over its fellow on her knee, to study his face anxiously.

“It’s pretty hard to get them up, that’s a fact,” said Jasper truthfully, “but then, you know, Polly, we’ve always found that when a thing had to be done, it was done.  You know the little brown house taught us that.”

“So it did,” said Polly, brightening up.  “Dear little old brown house, how could I ever forget it!  Well, I suppose,” with a sigh, “it will come to us as an inspiration when it’s time to fix them.”

“I suppose so too,” said Mrs. Pepper, passing the door, as usual with her mending basket, “and when two people start to play a duet, I think they much better put their minds on that, and not waste precious time on all sorts of questions that will take care of themselves when the time comes.”