THE WARDEN'S TEA PARTY After much painful doubting, on one thing only could Mr Harding resolve.

He determined that at any rate he would take no offence, and that he would make this question no cause of quarrel either with Bold or with the bedesmen.

In furtherance of this resolution, he himself wrote a note to Mr Bold, the same afternoon, inviting him to meet a few friends and hear some music on an evening named in the next week.
Had not this little party been promised to Eleanor, in his present state of mind he would probably have avoided such gaiety; but the promise had been given, the invitations were to be written, and when Eleanor consulted her father on the subject, she was not ill pleased to hear him say, "Oh, I was thinking of Bold, so I took it into my head to write to him myself, but you must write to his sister." Mary Bold was older than her brother, and, at the time of our story, was just over thirty.

She was not an unattractive young woman, though by no means beautiful.

Her great merit was the kindliness of her disposition.