"All right," agreed the rest. "That will be fine. We'll choose you, Nora," said Angeline McBride, "won't we, Charlotte?"
Charlotte consented and Annie rushed off to get the proper trappings for their play. Her sister, Isabel, always had a store of these on hand for just such occasions, so presently, Annie returned with her arms piled high with all sorts of stuff; old velveteen skirts, discarded evening wraps, scarfs, shawls and jackets. She threw these down in a heap on the lounge.
"Now help yourselves," she said. "Queens take first choice, maids next. Go ahead, Ruth, and pick out what you want."
"I'm just as much a queen as she is," grumbled Nora.
"But Ruth was the first chosen," argued Lucia.
"I don't care if she was. I won't play if I can't have first choice," pouted Nora who had her eye on a blue velvet skirt.
"Oh, let her choose first if she wants to," said Ruth, with some disdain. "She'll need the best things she can get to make her look like anybody," she said in an aside to Lucia.
Lucia giggled and Nora shot them an angry look, but began to turn over the things on the lounge selecting this, discarding that till finally Lucia broke in with, "Here, here, you can't do that way, Nora. Can she, Annie? She is picking out the very best things and isn't leaving anything for any one else. She can't wear two velvet skirts."
"No, that's not the way," said Annie, seeing how things were going. "You can only choose one thing at a time."
Nora protested but was over-ruled by the others, so she stood undecided between a blue velveteen skirt and a red fur-trimmed cloak, finally deciding upon the former and Ruth was awarded the cloak.