CHAPTER SIX.
"ECSTASY!" "...From thy rose-red lips my name Floweth; and then, as in a swoon, With dinning sound my ears are rife, My tremulous tongue faltereth, I lose my colour, I lose my breath, I drink the cup of a costly death, Brimm'd with delirious draughts of warmest life!" Some few days after Christmas, little Miss Pimpernell gave a small evening party for the especial delectation of those who had so meritoriously assisted in the decoration of the church.
Of course, it was not at all like the "barty" the celebrated Hans Breitman "giv'd" to his friends for the imbibition of "lager beer" ad libitum; but still, one may feel inclined to exclaim, in the exquisite broken words of that worthy, "Where am dat barty now ?" For, time has worked its usual changes; and all of us have long since been divided, separated, scattered, and dispersed to the four winds of heaven, so to speak, to the severance of old ties, and all kindred associations.
I had not had the slightest inkling that the "little affair" was about to "come off" beforehand.

I had met Miss Pimpernell out the very morning of the day on which it took place; yet--sly old lady that she was--she hardly gave me a hint of her social intent.
She certainly said that she had a little surprise in store for me; but when I pressed her to learn what that "something" was, she preserved a provoking reticence, declining to enlighten me any further.

"No, Frank," she said in her cheery way, "it is of no use your trying to coax me with your `dear Miss Pimpernell,' or think to flatter me into divulging my news by false compliments paid to my shabby old bonnet! No, you shall hear it all in good time, so don't be impatient.

I won't tell you another word now, my boy, there!" she added finally, trotting off on her parochial rounds and leaving me in suspense until the evening, to exercise my imagination regarding her contemplated "surprise." Then, however, I was let into the secret; and the party was all the more pleasurable from coming quite unexpectedly.

I always like doing things on the spur of the moment, without premeditation.