One point the Colonel had entirely forgotten to settle.  It was a point involving not merely propriety, but perhaps principle also, or at least the good report of the house,—­and he had never thought to arrange it.  He took Judge Thornton aside and whispered the important question to him,—­in his distress of mind, mistaking pockets and taking out his bandanna instead of his white handkerchief to wipe his forehead.

“Judge,” he said, “do you think, that, before we commence refreshing ourselves at the tables, it would be the proper thing to—­crave a—­to request Deacon Soper or some other elderly person—­to ask a blessing?”

The Judge looked as grave as if he were about giving the opinion of the Court in the great India-rubber case.

“On the whole,” he answered, after a pause, “I should think it might, perhaps, be dispensed with on this occasion.  Young folks are noisy, and it is awkward to have talking and laughing going on while blessing is being asked.  Unless a clergyman is present and makes a point of it, I think it will hardly be expected.”

The Colonel was infinitely relieved.  “Judge, will you take Mrs. Sprowle in to supper?” And the Colonel returned the compliment by offering his arm to Mrs. Judge Thornton.

The door of the supper-room was now open, and the company, following the lead of the host and hostess, began to stream into it, until it was pretty well filled.

There was an awful kind of pause.  Many were beginning to drop their heads and shut their eyes, in anticipation of the usual petition before a meal; some expected the music to strike up,—­others, that an oration would now be delivered by the Colonel.

“Make yourselves at home, ladies and gentlemen,” said the Colonel; “good things were made to eat, and you’re welcome to all you see before you.”

So saying he attacked a huge turkey which stood at the head of the table; and his example being followed first by the bold, then by the doubtful, and lastly by the timid, the clatter soon made the circuit of the tables.  Some were shocked, however, as the Colonel had feared they would be, at the want of the customary invocation.  Widow Leech, a kind of relation, who had to be invited, and who came with her old, back-country-looking string of gold beads round her neck, seemed to feel very serious about it.

“If she’d ha’ known that folks would begrutch cravin’ a blessin’ over sech a heap o’ provisions, she’d rather ha’ staid t’ home.  It was a bad sign, when folks was n’t grateful for the baounties of Providence.”

The elder Miss Spinney, to whom she made this remark, assented to it, at the same time ogling a piece of frosted cake, which she presently appropriated with great refinement of manner,—­taking it between her thumb and forefinger, keeping the others well spread and the little finger in extreme divergence, with a graceful undulation of the neck, and a queer little sound in her throat, as of an M that wanted to get out and perished in the attempt.