CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
A STRING OF PEARLS
The next afternoon at the three-thirty recreation, the girls met in Adele’s room to look over their party dresses and see if snaps and buttons needed sewing on or if ribbons and ruffles needed pressing. A pretty array of fluffy gowns, pink, blue and white, were spread out on their laps, and tongues flew as fast as the needles.
“Oh, won’t we have the very best time?” Peggy Pierce was saying. “It will be the first real dancing-party I have ever attended. Of course we used to skip about to the tunes of the victrola at our home parties, but think of it, girls, at this dance there is to be a stringed orchestra from Buffalo and a caterer to serve the refreshments.”
“I wonder where Bertha and Betty are!” Adele had just said when the former maiden appeared with a letter in her hand.
“Girls!” Burdie exclaimed tragically. “The young man whom I invited can’t come.”
“Oh-h! Isn’t that too bad?” Doris Drexel declared.
And Betty Burd chimed in with “It won’t be a nice party at all if Bob Angel isn’t here.”
Then Peggy Pierce added to tease, “And some one was going to look so sweet in her fluffy pink dress. If Bob isn’t here, our flower will wilt, I fear.”
“Meaning, I suppose, a maiden named Rose,” Doris Drexel chanted.
“Who said Bob wasn’t coming?” Bertha flashed. She always defended Rosamond. “I’m sure I didn’t! I changed my mind about asking my brother and I invited Dick Jensen instead. Bob wrote that he would be at the party if he had to walk here on jagged stones.”
“A very devoted brother, I must say,” Peggy said meaningly, with a sly side-glance at Rosamond, who was trying not to mind the teasing which Peggy seemed so to delight in.
“Adele,” Starr said to change the subject and also because she had been wondering about it, “wouldn’t it be nice if we all contributed toward a fund with which to buy Gertrude a birthday present?”
“Oh, yes,” Carol exclaimed, “and let it be something that Trudie would just love to have but cannot afford to get for herself.”
“I know what that something would be,” Adele said brightly. “Last year Trudie told me that though she cared nothing for rings and gaudy jewelry, she would so like to have a string of pearls. Her Uncle Pierson was visiting there at the time. He was in the room, absorbed in his reading, we supposed, but he must have overheard, for when he went away, he left an envelope addressed to Gertrude in which there was a message and a twenty-dollar bill crisp and new. In the little letter he told her that the money was to be spent as she most desired. Of course he supposed that Trudie would buy a string of pearls.
“She was so happy and she asked me if I would go to Dorchester with her on a shopping expedition, and so, the very next day, we set out.
“When we reached a jeweler’s shop, I expected Gertrude to turn in, but instead she went just beyond to a dry-goods store. I was indeed puzzled until Trudie, looking at me with happy eyes, exclaimed, ‘Daddy and Mother have been invited to a convention in Boston where so many pleasant things are to happen, but Mummie said she couldn’t go, and I know why she can’t. It’s because she hasn’t had a new best dress in ten years. There are so many babies growing up, and each time Mother has a little money saved, it has to be spent for them, but now, she is going to have a new dress and go to that convention.’”
“Isn’t that just like our Gertrude?” Doris Drexel said. “What did she buy?”
“She bought black broadcloth for a suit,” Della told them, “and then, as there happened to be a sale, she also bought enough soft lilac silk for a dress to wear in the evening. I saw it after they had it made, and it was the sweetest thing with some old real lace in the neck and sleeves.”
“Adele,” Evelyn Dartmoor said, “I am glad that you told us about it. If you will appoint me treasurer of the fund, I will promise you that on her sixteenth birthday, Gertrude will receive the prettiest string of pearls that can be found in Buffalo.”
“Good!” Della declared. “We will each give our contribution to Evelyn.” Then she added, “I can’t understand where Bettykins is. I told her that we were to meet here at this hour. I believe that I will go and hunt her up.”
Adele did not have far to go, for she found the little one slowly ascending the wide front stairs and her eyes were red, as though she had been crying.
“What is it, Betty dear?” Adele inquired as she drew the little girl into an alcove. “Have you had news from home?”
“No, it isn’t that, but I haven’t a party dress, and so I won’t be able to go to the dance.” The tears started afresh, but Adele, with a merry little laugh, exclaimed cheerily, “Oh, is that all? Why, Betsy, that pink muslin dress of yours would make the sweetest party gown if you would let me change it a bit.”
The little girl looked up eagerly. “Della, would you do it for me?” she asked. “I don’t know how to do anything like that myself. I’ve never worn the pink dress because I just hated that high collar and the long tight sleeves.”
“You’ll be surprised when you see what a fine dressmaker I am,” Adele replied gaily.
“Don’t say a word about it, and I’ll fix it to-night when we are alone. I’ll cut a square neck and short sleeves and put little lace ruffles around them, and oh, Bettykins, I’ve the dearest pink sash with long fringe that has never been out of its box, and you shall wear that.”
This was almost too much for the little girl and the tears appeared again, but this time they were happy ones.
“Della!” Betty cried impulsively. “That’s why everybody loves you, because you’re always doing things to make other people happy.”
Just then the gong sounded through the corridors calling the girls to the Gym.