“What a pretty idea,” exclaimed Mary Lee, highly delighted. “I am so delighted to have my birthstone.”
“And there is another clever idea in having the stones set in the four corners,” said Nan.
“To represent you four Corners,” Miss Dolores told her. “You are all jewels, you know. Grandfather was so interested in having them made according to a design that Harold drew, so you see we are all three represented in them.”
“I shall prize mine above anything I have,” declared Mary Lee, “and I shall treasure it all my life.”
“Now let’s go down and show them to everybody,” said Jean, pinning her gift on.
“Oh, you mustn’t wear it till to-morrow,” Jack chided her. “Must we, Nan?”
“Of course not.”
“Well, but we can show them, can’t we?” Jean asked.
“I suppose we can do that. Come, girls, if you have prinked enough we’d better get over that rehearsal.”
So they all rustled off down-stairs, Mary Lee holding Miss Dolores tightly by the hand. She had a sense of approaching loss, and perhaps no one in the company could appreciate Mr. Pinckney’s feelings better than Mary Lee. She wanted her friend to marry Mr. Kirk, of course, but would it ever be quite the same again when her beloved had stepped into a new world? Mary Lee sighed as they entered the big drawing-room and Mr. Kirk came forward to meet them.