"Here you are in the midst of smart traps, servants in livery, horses with docked tails and magnificent harnesses, perfectly contented with fat, lazy horses, an old negro coachman in a green coat, and carriages whose simplicity is simply disgusting. There is only one really magnificent thing about Peach Orchard, and that is the dog." I felt faint. To have earned the right to live in Bee's eyes only by a dog's breadth! It was mortifying. "I don't care so much for myself," pursued Bee, comfortably, "but what Sir Wemyss and Lady Lombard will say, _I_ don't know." "Why, they aren't coming here, are they?" I gasped, sitting up. "They are, if you will invite them. Of course I have nowhere to entertain them, in return for all they did for me, and I thought possibly you would ask them here for a fortnight, but since I have seen how you live--unless, perhaps, you would be willing to be smartened up a bit?" Bee looked distinctly hopeful. "What would you suggest?" I asked, huskily. Bee cleared her throat in a pleased way. "First of all, let me be assured that I will not be embarrassing you," she said, politely. "You can afford to--to branch out a little?" "Yes," I said. But my pleasure in the admission was not keen. "Then," said Bee, "I would advise a coachman and a footman in livery. I know just where two excellent Englishmen can be got. Then you want all this made into lawns. You want to exercise the horses more, and have their tails docked. And above all you want a victoria." "We have got that," I said. "I was going to surprise you with it. It came this morning." "Where is it?" cried Bee, standing up and shaking out her gown. "In the barn, but perhaps--" "Let's go and look at it!" exclaimed Bee. Then as we started she laid her hand kindly on my arm. "And please say 'stables,' not 'barn.' Sir Wemyss might not know what you meant." I giggled at this, for ours is so hopelessly a barn. Nobody but a fool would try to rejuvenate the huge red structure by the word "stables." It sheltered the lovely, soft-eyed Jerseys, a score of sitting hens in one retired corner, the horses, the feed, the carriages, and farm implements. Stables indeed! Bee walked straight by all the animals, who turned their heads and gave me a welcome after their several kinds, and stood in delighted contemplation before the beautiful shining victoria. "That is a beauty!" she said, at length. "Aubrey certainly knows what's what, even if you don't. Now I can tell you what has been in my mind all day long. Oh, do leave that cow alone and listen! Call the dog!" Jack, our snow-white bulldog, came at a word. Bee beamed on him. "It is the latest--the very latest fad in London to drive in a victoria with a white bulldog on the seat with you!" she said, complacently. "And Jack will be simply perfect for the part." "Shall I train Aubrey to run behind with his tongue hanging out, in Jack's place?" I asked.