Visitors were destined to be numerous to-day, for hardly had Quimby been served, when a knock at the door was followed by the appearance of Jo, who tip-toed into the room, and in a mysterious whisper, said, "I saw Quimby enter this room, bearing utensils that could only be used for one purpose! I smelt a savory odor! and here I am!" "And welcome, too!" said Cyn, laughing; "come, sit here by me. Are you and Mr. Stanwood acquainted?" "Oh, yes!" replied Jo, perching himself on the arm of a rocking-chair close to Cyn, and appropriating a wooden cover for a plate as he spoke. "He and Quimby did me the honor to call on me to-day, but left for metal more attractive--whether the dinner or you ladies, I will not pretend to say!" "It was we ladies, you dreadful matter-of-fact creature!" said Nattie. "Their presence at the dinner was quite accidental; Cyn and I started out for a little quiet feast, and behold the result! Bohemian enough for even you, isn't it, Jo?" "Exactly what I like!" replied Jo--and very close indeed to Cyn had Jo managed to get, but then the table was very small--"But the idea of you two girls proposing to selfishly enjoy such a feast all alone!" "I begin to think we did make a mistake, in not making preparations for, and inviting a larger party," acquiesced Cyn. "I wonder if Miss Rogers has overcome her anger towards offending me?" questioned Mr. Stanwood, looking at her roguishly, as she helped him to a second piece of pie. "My anger towards you?" repeated Nattie, coloring. "Yes; you did not want me to accept Miss Archer's most kind invitation, and remain; now confess, did you?" he asked, laughing. Nattie was rather embarrassed at this instance of the young gentleman's perceptive faculties, and not exactly able to refute the charge, was somewhat at loss how to reply. "I--I do not get acquainted quite so easily as Cyn," she stammered. "Except on the wire!" Cyn added. "Except on the wire," repeated Nattie, with a smile; then meeting the curious glance of Mr. Stanwood, it suddenly flashed upon her that he was the same young gentleman who had called at the office, and inquired about the tariff to Washington, for the sole object of talking, as she then supposed. "I have seen you before!" she exclaimed, on the impulse of the moment. "That sounds like a novel! what is coming now?" ejaculated Jo, with his mouth full of pie. Mr. Stanwood laughed very heartily at Nattie's exclamation, and asked in reply, "Have you just discovered it? I recognized you the moment I entered the room to-day. That is one reason I was so anxious to remain. She snubbed me most outrageously," he added to Cyn, in explanation, "and simply because I tried to be agreeable to her one day at the office." "But you had no business to be agreeable!" said Nattie, also laughing, and not at all displeased. "Of course you had not," interrupted Jo. "I never talk to strangers," concluded Nattie.