Page:Lady Anne Granard 1.pdf/92

Rh "expense no object," it is a consideration: the master feels that his credit is at stake; and, as no dinner is given without a motive, on its success depends also the success of his scheme. But, of all cases, the most extreme is where the party is out of the common course of things. Now no one could it be so far removed from the ordinary current of existence as at Lady Anne's. It had literally never happened before; none could recollect the fact of a friend having even lunched there. Lady Anne gave over-night orders upon orders, but the next day they were left to be executed by five inexperienced girls, a boy, and a kitchen-maid. Here Mrs. Palmer's forethought stood them in good stead; her cook was sent over the first thing, who seemed not a little alarmed at the poverty of the land. However, she had been strictly enjoined to make the best of every thing, and her own kitchen was close at hand, while she knew that in the course of the morning a basket of game and fruit, &c. would arrive, veiled under the pretext that Mrs. Palmer had just received them herself from the country. "I do not believe," said Lady Anne, as she took her last look in the glass, at the result of her careful toilette, "that Mr. Glentworth will find me much altered, and yet it is twelve years since I saw him." She certainly looked very handsome: the black velvet dress set off her still fair skin, the blonde filled up any angles, the few pink flowers in the cap gave it