Sometimes I think that a long course of being told that she is the worst housekeeper, or the most inadequate manager, in the world, varied only by the nerve-shattering experience of plates hurled at her head, has altogether destroyed Nancy’s capacity for distinguishing fact from fiction. I am sure that she does not consciously fib. It is simply that her sense of expediency has completely got the better of her. Truthful, she undoubtedly is not, but I have always believed in her sincerity. And we were all secretly grateful to her for restoring Claire’s good humor. “I may not have a staff of A. D. C’s., but I have had quite as much experience in entertaining as Lady Annabel Bending, I imagine,” said Claire, with some elasticity of statement. “And I should like to do something of the kind.” “The difficulty will be to get men,” Mrs. Kendal stated, with all the Kendal directness. “You know how few men there are anywhere near Cross Loman. The girls often say that it’s next door to impossible to get a man for anything round here. Of course, Ahlfred would come down for it, and perhaps he could bring a friend--that would be two men.” We tried to look encouraged. “Let’s make a list of the people you want to invite, Cousin Claire.” Claire dictated names, and Sallie wrote them down, and we all made suggestions. The monosyllable “men” must have resounded through the hall fifty times, in Mumma’s emphatic contralto. The list approximated to about forty couples when it was done. I said that I thought we ought to do the thing properly and invite the whole neighborhood, not merely dancers. “Can’t we have bridge or something to amuse the older people?” said I, not without a thought to my own entertainment. “I know!” cried Martyn. “Let’s have theatricals--ask everybody to come and see them, and then have a dance afterwards for those who like it.” Christopher, Mrs. Fazackerly, Sallie, and Captain Patch received the suggestion with such clamorous enthusiasm that Claire and I exchanged a glance and a word under cover of it. “Would you care to, Claire? I’m quite ready, if you are, and it would amuse Christopher.” “Yes, it would. We haven’t done anything for a long time, either, and Cross Loman really has had enough of the Drill Hall entertainments, I should imagine.” I knew that she was thinking of Lady Annabel again. “You can have theatricals, Martyn,” said Claire graciously. “I think it’s rather a good idea, and we’ll have dancing in the saloon afterwards.” The list was revised, added to and discussed all over again. “But who will act in the theatricals?” Mary said. “And what are you going to act?” “Captain Patch will write something--Oh yes, you must, or what’s the good of having an author here at all?--and we’d better tell him just how many people there are who can act, and then he can have the right number of parts,” said Sallie rapidly. “And anyone who can’t act, and wants to, can be told that there isn’t a part.”