Perhaps it was the contempt in Tom’s voice as he said, “I am ashamed of you,” which wrought the change and perhaps it was the thought which repeated itself over and over in his mind: “There is no hurry. No one can make me marry against my will, and I have a year or more if I choose in which to decide. I may get accustomed to thinking of a wife by that time, though the Lord knows I never wanted one; and possibly the girl may not want such a stick as I am. I hope she won’t. I am not at all like her.” Thus reassured, he became quite himself, rather shy, but a courteous, polished gentleman, as he went forward to meet their guests. Naturally Irene was the first to alight. There was a feeling with us all that she was the guest of honor and she accepted the situation gracefully. Yesterday she had been all in black, to-day she was all in white, with a few pink roses nestling in the fluffy folds of her waist, and nothing could be more modest than her manner as she stepped from the carriage and shook hands with Mr. McPherson, then with Tom and last with Reginald. She could blush when she chose to do so, and she blushed now very prettily as she looked up at him and then let her eyes fall coyly and modestly as she stood aside for Rena. Of the two girls Rena had been more nervous about the dinner-party than Irene. She was anxious to see the place and Nannie’s picture, but she was feeling herself more and more an impostor and wishing she had never tried to deceive Reginald Travers, who, because she was deceiving him, interested her more than he would otherwise have done. With her whole heart she loved Tom, but she pitied Reginald, and her manner toward him was like that of one who feels he has done a wrong and is seeking to redress it. She, too, was looking her best, in a soft cream-colored cashmere, with red roses on her bosom and an exquisite pin of pearls and turquoise at her throat, and Reginald felt the charm in her manner, and a smile of genuine pleasure broke over his face as he greeted her and said he hoped she had suffered no inconvenience from her visit to the pines two nights before. “Not the least,” she said, “I’d like to go again.”