no longer. I think supper tables may be laid in the rooms below for fifty, and I shall not invite more than sixty. I mean to give something as slight and inexpensive as possible; but I have been so long out of the way of these things, that I am really quite at a loss, and must throw myself on your kindness, as I hope you will be with me, and also Mr. and Mrs. Gooch. You must arrange in such a manner as not to blush for your own contrivances."
"Surely," thought Mrs. Palmer, "she is making this party on Louisa's account, and very properly she judges, but why can't she say so? God help her! she hardly knows how to manage it consistent with her rank and her narrow income."
It was a great relief when the kind-hearted woman heard her husband say:—
"When my daughters were at home, Mrs. Palmer used to make up very pretty quadrille parties, I must say, and she is a very good hand at arranging tables, and that kind of thing. I remember I was always applied to for one thing—'Papa will buy the cakes. Oh, yes, nobody chooses cakes so well as papa.'"
"Well, my dear, and so you did, though you always got them in the city."
"Well, then, Lady Anne, if you think well of it, and will let me know the day you will want them, I will take charge of the cake department, including, if I remember rightly, plum and plain, rout cakes, and macaroons, finger biscuits, and cracknels."
