Is it evening dress or what ?" I was too much disconcerted and crestfallen to answer the question, and avoided my two prospective guests for the rest of the day.
Already I was half repenting my venture.

But there was no drawing back now.

Letters or messages came from the rest of the "usual lot"-- the Twins, Flanagan, the Field-Marshal, Daly, and Whipcord, every one of them saying they'd be there.

Yes, there was nothing left but to go through with it.
The next two days were two of the most anxious days I ever spent.

I was running about all one afternoon (when I ought to have been delivering bills of lading), inquiring the prices of lobsters, pork-pies, oranges, and other delicacies, arranging for the hire of cups and saucers, ordering butter and eggs, and jam, and other such arduous and delicate duties.