“And if there is anything I hate it is to lose any part of a dance,” said Mary Lee.
“Then why crowd all into one evening?” asked one of the boys.
“No reason at all for it,” said Jo. “We may as well string it out and have two jollifications instead of one, I say.”
All agreed to this, hence they could tarry at table as long as they wished.
Nan had been so busy over her costume that she had not thought much about outside arrangements. “I don’t see how we are going to have a dance without music,” she said to Jack who was sitting next her.
“Oh, don’t you know?” answered Jack. “Didn’t you see the big box ’Lish brought this afternoon? There’s the music.” She turned her sister’s head around and Nan saw standing on a table in the corner a phonograph on which Hartley was already placing a record.
“Well, I declare,” exclaimed Nan. “Who thought of that?”
“Ran and Hartley. They went over to Friendship, waylaid Noey Peakes, got him to send a telegram to Portland, for the phonograph, and he brought it over on the stage, then ’Lish went for it.”
“What a nice thoughtful thing to do,” Nan expressed her approval. “Of course, Ran,” she answered her cousin who stood asking for the first dance, and if she saw Mr. Wells turning away with a frown she may have felt a slight pang, though after all she told herself that Ran deserved the dance if he wanted it.
“False Brunhilde,” said Mr. Wells to her a little later. “Didn’t you know that first dance was mine by all rights?”