With the chairs removed, the dining-room seemed almost spacious, and there Peggy at one end of the table and Clare at the other served chocolate and lemonade. The afternoon passed quickly away. Martine forgot her first anxiety when she saw that her friends were evidently enjoying themselves. "I am surprised to see you here," Peggy exclaimed to Herbert. "Isn't it a great condescension? I thought you had vowed never to go to a tea at York." "Generally this kind of thing is a bore, and I had fairly hard work to get the other fellows to come. But I told them that anything Martine did was sure to pass off well, and it's true." "This is just like any other tea," protested Peggy, remembering that Herbert had never accepted one of her invitations. "Oh, it's smaller than others," responded Herbert, "and every one knows every one and we all feel that we can do as we like--and no one is wearing white gloves," he concluded, as if he had made a special discovery. "There are no gloves of any color so far as I can see," retorted Peggy. "That's just it, we can have a good time here, because everything is unconventional. But, alas, here is Carlotta--" and Herbert moved rapidly in the opposite direction from his sister. Although Carlotta seldom said really disagreeable things, something in her manner excited Martine's antagonism. "She need not have referred to the spilt cream," thought the latter, after a word or two with Carlotta. "She must know I hate to be reminded that I cut a ridiculous figure." "Oh yes," she continued aloud, "I am too busy to do much pleasuring this summer. The house gives me plenty to do, and I have some extra studying." "We heard you were going to college," said one of Martine's friends. "Yes," added Carlotta, "but I shouldn't think you'd quite like to. It makes a girl so conspicuous to go to college." "A college girl isn't half so conspicuous as a golf-champion. Why, I saw your picture in a Sunday paper last month, Carlotta, beside a prize bicycle rider's, and your weight and height and all kinds of things about you were there, too." Martine spoke hotly, as she was apt to when excited, and Carlotta made no reply. "If I go to college," continued Martine, "I fear I'll never be distinguished enough to have my portrait in print." Then, remembering that personal speeches of this kind were not in good taste from a hostess to a guest, she changed the subject to something less irritating. But Carlotta turned away, only half mollified. "Elinor," cried Martine, as the last of her guests went home, "this tea has been bad for me; it has given me a taste for society that will worry me the rest of the summer." "There's no reason why you shouldn't be a little gayer."