Miss Nevins felt really grand. This was a true friend.
One evening she thrust a note in Lilian’s hand. She had taken a seat on the other side of the table.
Lilian read it in her room. She smiled, yet she felt a little hurt after all she had done for Alice.
“I hope you won’t feel bad because I changed my seat. Some of those hateful girls called us Beauty and the Beast. I know I am not handsome, but then rich people seldom are, and I don’t think you are so very. I have a new dear friend who really does care for me and is going to plan about my clothes. Of course you don’t know how the real style ought to dress, and I don’t think mamma would like me to be intimate with a girl whose mother was caretaker here. It’s such a pity she is, for if she wasn’t here you wouldn’t need to say anything about it and would be more respected. I hope you won’t be mad.—Alice.”
“I won’t be ashamed of her, poor dear mother,” Lilian said resolutely. But if she were like Mrs. Trenham, and the change would not be so very great, she mused.
Miss Nevins avoided her for the next few days. Lilian did not seem to notice it.
Mrs. Barrington called the girls together one evening.
“Young ladies,” she began, “I have a plan to lay before you. There have always been some Hallowe’en plays and tricks that often seem both childish and reprehensible. I am going to propose you lay aside all these and instead let me give you a party with music, dancing and some refreshments. I will invite the young gentlemen of the neighborhood, many of whom you have met at church and elsewhere. What do you say?”
“Oh, Mrs. Barrington, that is utterly lovely.”
Phillipa Rosewald sprang up and clasped both hands. There was a bevy of girls about her and they all talked at once.