“Goodness, Beth! don’t say such dreadful things,” begged Molly. “And out of the Scriptures, too. It sounds irreverent.”
Beth’s standing in class naturally gave her a long lead for the presidency of the seniors. Not that mere scholarship counts high for that honored position; but Beth had been steadily growing in popularity with the students in general of Rivercliff School, and with her own classmates in particular.
Without Maude Grimshaw to form a cabal against her, there really was little opposition to Beth when “J. Molly Granger,” as the jolly one signed her name to the typewritten notice on the board, launched her chum’s boom. Laura Hedden, Izola Pratt, Miss Rice, and several others who had been Maude’s most faithful “Me toos,” failed to raise much of a barrier against the rising flood of Beth’s popularity. Besides, they could not settle upon an opposing candidate.
Therefore, six weeks after the term opened, Beth was elected to the class presidency. The senior class entertained the other older pupils in the drawing-rooms. There was music, and dancing, and——
“Real men for partners!” sighed Molly, ecstatically. “Think of it! We seniors may dance with the male visitors—if we are asked!”
Beth had a new dress—black and silver. Molly said it was “a dream.” And certainly her brunette chum did look lovely in it. Although Beth and Mrs. Baldwin had made it themselves, it was a gown with which any professional dressmaker might have been satisfied.
There was just one thing missing. Beth had told Mrs. Baldwin there would be when the frock was tried on before she left home. Great-grandmother Lomis’ corals would have given just the touch needed to make Beth, as Ella declared, “fairly splendiferous.”
But Mrs. Baldwin had not seemed to see it Beth’s way. The latter felt that she was now old enough to wear the heirloom. She felt hurt that her mother did not get it for her; but she contented herself on the occasion of this first senior reception, by wearing a band of coral-hued velvet about her throat. Her dusky shoulders gleamed exquisitely under the black lace that a wealthy customer had given her; her silver-figured, short-waisted gown hung gracefully about her as she walked. She was all a-sparkle when, just as the music for the first dance struck up, she appeared before Miss Hammersly, who, with several of the teachers, was receiving.
“My dear Beth,” said the principal, tapping Beth’s bare arm with her fan, “I have a partner for you. He has been begging the honor and I cannot refuse—although his name may cause you an unpleasant thought. But that is all over now, I hope.”
Beth looked startled for a moment. The very good looking young man beside the principal was quite unknown to her.