"There's the clock right afore your eyes."
"The time maybe'd be better from a bran new watch."
I did not linger to hear more of their badinage, but the look of
satisfaction on Samuel's face found a reflection in my own heart, and I
wondered in what way I could have spent a few dollars to procure a larger
amount of happiness. We had quite a large dinner party that evening. Mr.
Hill, our minister, was there, with his wife and grown-up daughter, and
some half-dozen others of our Cavendish acquaintances. I found the hour
at dinner rather heavy and tiresome. My neighbors on my right and left
being--the one a regular diner-out whose conversation was mostly
gustatory, and the other a youth whose ideas never seemed to rise above
the part of his hair or cut of his garments. I noticed Mr. Bovyer sitting
further up on the other side of the table looking quite as bored as I
felt, his next neighbor being a young lady the exact counterpart in ideas
and aims of the youth beside me. The dinner itself was a triumph of
cook's skill, and, as is usually the case with a dinner suitably
prepared, its effect was composing. Mr. Winthrop neither drank wine nor
smoked, and did not encourage these habits in his guests; so that we all
left the table together and proceeded to the drawing-room. I was the last
of the ladies to pass from the room, and Mr. Bovyer joined me and
accompanied me into the drawing-room. I was getting interested in his
conversation, when Mr. Winthrop came and urged for some music.
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