The opportunity for doing so came the next day, about an hour after dinner. Madam Passmore sat knitting peacefully in her especial chair in the parlor. Henrietta was absent, superintending household affairs; and Isabella, with the velvet ornaments tied round her neck and arms, was occupied as usual with her endless embroidery-frame. "We shall have an assembly on Monday," observed Madam Passmore, speaking to nobody in particular. "That is right!" said Isabella, rather less languidly than usual. "I am so glad! Who are coming, Mother?" "Dr. Braithwaite and his wife, Squire and Madam Harvey, and Squire and Madam Rowe." "Nobody else?" asked Isabella, in a disappointed tone. "Well, that I don't know, child," answered her mother. "Maybe some of the young folks may come from over the hill." "Are they coming to dinner?" "No, for the afternoon. Put on your blue satin petticoats, girls, and your best gowns; and Bell, bid Harry to have ready the basset-table in the corner. We will draw it out when 'tis wanted." "But you will have dancing, Mother?" said Isabella, in a tone which indicated that her enjoyment would be spoilt without it. "Please yourself, child," said Madam Passmore. "I don't know who you'll dance with, unless Johnny and Frank Rowe should come. The old folks will want no dancing, I should think; they would rather have a quiet game." "How tiresome!" said Isabella. "Well, I don't think so," replied Madam Passmore. "When you come to my time of life, you won't want to be sent spinning about the room like so many teetotums. Yet I was reckoned a good dancer once, to be sure." "And you liked it, Mother?" asked Celia. "Yes, I suppose I did. I was young and foolish," said Madam Passmore, with a little sigh. "But really, when you come to think it over, 'tis only fit for children, I think. I would rather have a good game of hunt-the-slipper--there is more sense in it, and quite as much moving about, and a great deal more fun." "So very vulgar!" sighed Isabella, contemptuously. "Very vulgar, Madam!" bowed Harry, who had entered while his mother was speaking; "almost as vulgar as eating and sleeping." "I wish you would go away, Harry. I don't like arguing with you." "By all means, Madam," said Harry, bowing himself out of the parlor. Madam Passmore laughed. "Well, girls," she said, "I think I shall have to give the ladies some tea, though it is a new-fangled drink; and as you are used to pour it for your sisters, Bell, you had better take the charge of it." "Very well, Mother." "And, Celia, can you get some flowers and bits of green from the evergreens? They will look better than nothing in the jars. That great laurel at the other end of the park can spare some, and as you take long walks, I leave that to you."