R.S.V.P.
Joppa immediately R.S.V.P.'d that it would feel flattered to present itself at that hour, and then looked anxiously around and asked itself "What will it be this time ?" The day dawned, and still the great question agitated public minds unsolved.
"There isn't a word to be coaxed or threatened out of Maria," said Bell Masters.

"I believe it's something too awful to tell.

Mr.De Forest, can't you hazard a guess ?" Mr.Ogden De Forest was lazily strolling past the Masters' front steps, where a knot of girls had gathered after a game of lawn tennis, and were imbibing largely of lemonade, which was being fabricated on the spot, according to demand, by Phebe and Janet Mudge.

The spoons stopped clinking in the various glasses as Bell thus audaciously called out to the gentleman.

He was not a Joppite by either birth or education; indeed, he had but lately arrived on his first visit as a summer guest, and was hardly known to anybody personally as yet, though there was not a girl in the place but was already perfectly well aware of his existence, and had placed him instantly as "one of the very swellest of the swells." He was a short, dark, well-dressed man, and so exceedingly handsome that every feminine heart secretly acknowledged that only to have the right to bow to him would be a joy and pride indescribable.