"Rehearsing tableaux, young ladies!" said he. "Miss Ross--Miss Alice--good evening. You play humility, I perceive, Miss Lelia." She did not offer to rise. "Do not I become the character?" she inquired. "The character becomes you, at any rate. How have you wiled away the day, Miss Alice?" Her sunshiny face made him as frank as herself, when he addressed her. "Oh!" said she. "In sleeping, reading and eating, I contrived to dispose of all but the past hour or two, of which Miss Ross has kindly relieved me." "I can testify to her adroitness in this particular," he replied. "She did a little time-lifting for me last evening. Have you finished your official returns of 'killed, wounded and missing,' Miss Ross?" "I suspect my bulletins would comprise most of the latter," said Ida. "And mine!" echoed Alice. "There is one exception, at least," he returned, bowing. "Decide between yourselves to whom the captive belongs." "May I be umpire?" asked Miss Arnold, her cheeks dimpling mischievously. "When I was a boy, Miss Lelia, I read in an old spelling-book, of two cats, who came to the scratch over a piece of cheese, and agreed to refer its division to the monkey's arbitration. You have read it too, and recollect the catastrophe." He appeared to take pleasure in being as rude to her as the letter of politeness allowed; and she bore it patiently, without relaxing her efforts to please and attract. "Where are Helen and Miss Read?" he asked of Alice. "Do all the duties of hospitality devolve upon Miss Ross?" "They are resting, I suppose, to be blooming at the party to-night," replied she. "Your roses, then, are not so precious. Is this so?" "Say instead, that they are perpetual," said Ida. Alice blushed and laughed. "Are we to be favored with your company, Miss Ross?" inquired Mr. Copeland. "No, I do not keep late hours until my health is confirmed." "What a pity!" exclaimed Alice. "Do go! I shall feel so strange, so lonely!" "Mr. Copeland will prevent that; and I make over to you my interest in my friend, Mr. Dana, for one evening." "Are you in the market for the first bidder?" said Miss Arnold, with pretty archness, to the former gentleman. "If Miss Ross pleases. I intended to ask permission to remain in my present quarters until the hour at which we ultra-fashionables go to routs; but if she banishes me sooner, I am proud to do her bidding, hard as it is." The lamps were lighted; and Mrs. Read conferred the further illumination of her presence.