With a merry laugh Aunt Eunice explained that the _table cloth_ was a _bed-spread_, and the _handkerchief_ a _towel_. It was all the same to Hugh so long as they improved the room, and glancing at his watch, he said it was time to be gone. “_Ad_ may pick Adah’s eyes out before I get home,” was his laughing remark as he vaulted into his saddle and dashed off across the fields, where, beneath the warm Kentucky sun, the snow was already beginning to soften. Breakfast had been late at Spring Bank that morning, for the strangers had required some care, and Miss ’Lina was sipping her coffee rather ill-naturedly when a note was handed her, and instantly her mood was changed. “Splendid, mother!” she exclaimed, glancing at the tiny, three-cornered thing; “an invitation to Ellen Tiffton’s party. I was afraid she would leave me out after Hugh’s refusal to attend the Ladies’ fair, or buy a ticket for her lottery. It was only ten dollars either, and Mr. Harney spent all of forty, I’m sure, in the course of the evening.” “Hugh had no ten dollars to spare,” Mrs. Worthington said, apologetically, “though, of course, he might have been more civil than to tell Ellen it was a regular swindle, and the getters-up ought to be indicted. I almost wonder at her inviting him, as she said she’d never speak to him again.” “Invited him! Who said she had? It’s only one card for me,” and with a most satisfied expression ’Lina presented the note to her mother, whose face flushed at the insult offered her son—an insult which even ’Lina felt, but would not acknowledge, lest it should interfere with her going. “There may be some mistake,” she suggested. “Lulu may have dropped his,” and ringing the bell she summoned to their presence a bright, handsome mulatto girl, who answered frankly that “Only one invite was given her, and, and that for Miss ’Lina. I asked Jake,” she said, “where was Master Hugh’s, and he said, ‘Oh. Miss Ellen’s ravin’ at him; called him no gentleman; and wouldn’t invite him any way.’ I think it’s right mean in her, for Master Hugh is enough sight better gentleman than Bob Harney, that she’s after. I told Jake to tell her so,” and having thus vindicated her master’s cause, Lulu tripped back to the kitchen, leaving her mistress and ’Lina to finish their party discussion. “You won’t go, of course,” Mrs. Worthington said, quietly. “You’ll resent her slighting Hugh.” “Indeed I shan’t,” the young lady retorted. “I hardly think it fair in Ellen, but I shall accept, and I must go to town to-day to see about having my pink silk fixed. I think I’ll have some black lace festooned round the skirt. How I wish I could have a new one. Do you suppose Hugh has any money?” “None for new dresses or lace flounces either,” Mrs. Worthington replied. “I fancy he begins to look old and worn with this perpetual call for money from us. We must economize.”