"I know Mother will have chosen me something pretty," she purred. "Mother's got such lovely taste, and she wrote that she'd seen the very thing, and was sure I should like it."
"It's well wrapped up," remarked Janet.
Irma was removing sheet after sheet of tissue paper with a pleased giggle. At last she reached the core of the package, and unfolded—not a smart new frock, but her own ordinary school evening dress. Her stare of blank astonishment was comical.
"What's this? What have they sent me?" she gasped.
But her room-mates were collapsing in various attitudes of mirth, and she understood. For a moment two red spots flared in her cheeks, then she had the sense to take the joke with a good grace. If she was angry, the others shouldn't have the triumph of seeing her annoyance.
"You geese!" she remarked. "I might have known the box couldn't arrive to-day. So this is why you hauled me upstairs, is it? Oh, go on and laugh if you like! It doesn't hurt me. I don't mind."
She hung the dress up again in her wardrobe, and folding the sheets of tissue paper, appropriated them.
"I've been wanting some tissue paper," she said airily.
The girls restrained themselves and sobered down.
"You're a trump, Irma!" declared Avelyn.