“Oh-h, it doesn't matter! It was nothing at all important!” Rosalind flushed, and had the grace to look a trifle ashamed of her own ill-breeding, but she did not by any means appreciate the reproof. The girls had not been ten minutes in the house, and already that aggravating Peggy Saville had succeeded in making her feel humiliated and uncomfortable. The same thing happened whenever they met. The respect, and awe, and adoring admiration which she was accustomed to receive from other girls of her own age, seemed altogether wanting in Peggy's case, and yet, strange to say, the very fact that she refused to fall down and worship invested Peggy with a peculiar importance in Rosalind's eyes. She longed to overcome her prejudices and add her name to the list of her adorers, and to this end she considered her tastes in a way which would never have occurred to her in connection with Mrs. Asplin's daughters. In planning the pink luncheon Peggy had been continually in her mind, and it is doubtful whether she would have taken the trouble to arrange so difficult an entertainment had not the party from the vicarage included that important personage, Miss Mariquita Saville. From the bedroom the girls adjourned to the morning-room, where Lady Darcy sat waiting, but almost as soon as they had exchanged greetings, the gong sounded to announce luncheon, and they walked across the hall aglow with expectation. The table looked exquisite, and the guests stood still in the doorway and gasped with admiration. The weather outside was grey and murky, but tall standard lamps were placed here and there, and the light which streamed from beneath the pink silk shades gave an air of warmth and comfort to the room. Down the centre of the table lay a slip of looking-glass on which graceful long-necked swans seemed to float to and fro, while troughs filled with soft, pink blossoms formed a bordering. Garlands of pink flowers fell from the chandelier and were attached to the silver candelabra in which pink candles burned with clear and steady flare. Glass, china, ornaments were all of the same dainty colour, and beside each plate was a dainty little buttonhole nosegay, with a coral-headed pin, all ready to be attached to the dress or coat of the owner. “It's--it's beautiful!” cried Mellicent ecstatically, while Peggy's beauty-loving eye turned from one detail to another with delighted approbation. “Really,” she said to herself in astonishment, “I couldn't have done it better myself! It's quite admirable!” and as Rosalind's face peered inquiringly at her beneath the canopy of flowers she nodded her head, and smiled in generous approval. “Beautiful! Charming! I congratulate you! Did you design it, and arrange everything yourself!” “Mother and I made it up between us. We didn't do the actual work, but we told the servants what to do, and saw that it was all right. The flowers and bon-bons are easy enough to manage; it's the things to eat that are the greatest trouble.”