We expected Esther quite early in the morning to tell us how she liked the world, but the morning-hours passed, and lunch-time, and still she had not come. However, just as little Annie was carrying in the big tea-tray--which the robust appetites of the younger Brandons demand--to Aline's room, we heard the little pony-carriage drive up, and in a minute or two we were welcoming our Cinderella home from the ball. Esther certainly looked a very different person from the radiant princess of last night. Our winter jackets have grown rather threadbare, without any great hope of new ones, and Esther's seemed to show unusually thin and skimpy in the western light which was pouring in on the tea-table and its hissing urn and pile of hot cream-cakes. "Well," said Lady O'Brien emphatically, as she seated herself, "I have brought the belle of the ball to see you. Congratulate her, my dears!" Esther blushed, and we all laughed, knowing Lady O'Brien's way; but the old lady was in earnest this time. "I assure you there hasn't been such execution since I came out myself at the very same Hunt Ball, and the next morning there were no less than three challenges over the last dance I had to give. Ah! my dears, there are no such men nowadays, as I'm never tired of saying. Sir Con O'Doherty winged Counsellor Slattery, and poor Tom Kinsella went with a ball in his knee from that day. And to think I passed them all by for Peter, that sat mumchance in a corner and hadn't the spunk to approach me for a dance. All the better it was, for if he had he'd have torn my Limerick flounce in flitters, and that's something I'd never have forgiven." She stopped to take breath, and Pierce put in: "I hope Essie's been spilling no blood, Lady O'Brien." "Only heart's blood, my dear boy. It's all that's ever spilt now, more's the pity." "I suppose in your day they tapped the less important organs. You talk as if the seat of life were somewhat less important than--the nose, shall we say?" "Hear the impudence of the boy!" cried the old lady, diverted. "I'll be after tapping your nose, my fine fellow, one of these days, if you give me any of your sauce." "Well," said Aline, coming in, "I hope Essie had a very nice time." "It's like your cold-bloodedness to put it that way, Aline," said the old lady; "but all I can say is that if Studderts and Ffrenches and Macnamaras come proposing for Esther, you just tell them that they'll have to wait till she sees more of the world and has had her pick and choice." "Poor Essie! is she to become a worldling then?" said Aline, with a fond glance at Esther, who had kept silence, as was often her way, while we all chattered about her. "You haven't taken off your jacket, dear. Aren't you hot?" she said, noticing that Esther still wore her outdoor things. Esther looked shyly at her godmother.