"Thank you, for Matty's sake," Mrs. Bell had responded to Mabel. "Matty will be delighted to see you both,--delighted." Mabel had gone home a little bewildered and a little amused, and Mrs. Bell felt herself altogether in high feather. When Mrs. Butler and Miss Peters appeared on the scene there had already arrived a fair sprinkling of guests. Mrs. Gorman Stanley who did most of her eating at her friends' houses, was enjoying her second cup of tea, and asking Alice for the third time to pass her the sponge-cakes. Mrs. Morris, considerably wrapped up on account of her bronchitis, was shivering by an open window, and Mrs. Jenkins and the two Misses Jenkins, and Mr. Jones the curate, were also in the room. The eldest Miss Jenkins had managed, for the first time, to establish herself in the vicinity of Mr. Jones, when the maid--no one kept two maids at Northbury--threw open the door. "Mrs. Butler, ma'am, and Miss Peters, ma'am." Whereupon the two ladies, portentous with their great news, came in. As they walked down the street Mrs. Butler had warned her sister not to leak out a word. "_I'll_ tell," she said, with simple gravity which impressed. "But it was _my_ news," said poor Miss Peters. "I prefer to tell," said Mrs. Butler. And Miss Peters was demolished. Accordingly when they entered the room Mrs. Butler made straight for the sofa beside Mrs. Bell. She took her friend's hand, looked at her solemnly, and said: "How are you?" in a lugubrious voice. Mrs. Bell assured Mrs. Butler that she was in excellent health, and Matty was called forward to administer the tea and cake. Mrs. Butler also favored Matty with a portentous glance. "Has that girl got over the cough which she was so troubled with a year back?" she queried of the parent. Mrs. Bell bridled at this. Never had her Matty looked stronger or more blooming, and after all the cough so solemnly inquired after, just for all the world, muttered the poor mother, as if it were a graveyard cough, had been but the remains of the whooping cough. "Matty blooms," replied Mrs. Bell. "Don't you, Matty, my love? I don't suppose, Mrs. Butler, you ever saw my girl looking better." "I'm glad of it," said Mrs. Butler. "No more tea, I thank you, Matty. Well, then, as you are so pressing, just a tiny drop. You can put it on what's in my cup, if you like. Oh, yes, certainly more cream. I'm partial to cream, if it's good. It agrees with me. It doesn't agree with Maria, so I never give it her. Well, as I was saying, I'm glad you are in good health, Matty, for a girl who has a real fine constitution can stand up against shocks." "Shocks?" said Mrs. Bell. "I don't think we need talk of shocks at this time of day, unless indeed, they are joyful ones. Matty, my love," here Mrs. Bell raised her voice to a high and penetrating key, "I wonder when our dear friends the Bertrams will be here."