“Like slapping her,” put in Betsy.
“That is just what you do feel like,” agreed Elizabeth. “I should enjoy the party much more if she were not going to be there.”
“Well, there is one thing you may be sure of,” said Miss Jewett confidently; “you will enjoy it much more than she will, for all her fine clothes.”
“How can you tell that, Miss Jewett?” asked Elizabeth.
“The kingdom of heaven is within you,” quoted Miss Jewett with a smile. “I don’t believe you will mind, once you get into the good time, whether you have on a plain frock or not. Why, the best time I ever had at a party was when I wore my street dress. It was in the country and my trunk somehow went astray, so I had to make the best of it, though everyone else had on something appropriate.”
This was consoling information to Elizabeth, yet the thought of the blue chiffon and the lace-over-pink costumes still troubled her. “Betsy has a lovely white mull,” she told Miss Jewett.
But just as she spoke Kathie entered. She greeted Miss Jewett cordially and in a few minutes bore her off to her room, from which Elizabeth and Betsy were excluded. Miss Jewett was very fond of Kathie and though she was several years older she enjoyed Kathie’s society more than that of any other girl in the village. Kathie admired and liked Miss Jewett immensely and the two had many good times together. Probably one reason for their intimacy lay in the fact that Miss Jewett was engaged to Betsy’s uncle, while Kathie and Betsy’s brother, Hal, hoped some day to marry.
“I do wish Elizabeth did have something more suitable,” declared Kathie, as she set to work upon the dimity skirt. “She usually doesn’t care much about having a special dress, but this is supposed to be such a very grand affair and she has heard the other girls talk so much about it that somehow she feels a little sensitive, and no wonder. If the invitation had only come in time we could have sent to the city for material to make a new frock.”
“It is too bad,” returned Miss Jewett. “I don’t blame the child in the least for feeling a little dissatisfied; even an older person would be justified in doing so. I suppose you have nothing you could make over for her, Kathie?”
“Why, yes, I have, but there is not time enough. The party comes off tomorrow night, you know. I am perfectly willing to sew every minute, but I am afraid to promise, for it would be worse to disappoint her than to have her wear the dimity.”