“Giles doesn’t really count at a dance,” smiled Mrs. Bradley. “And he will be at home all the holidays. You won’t be missing Giles.”
Toppie was with them, and she smiled, too, looking at Alix and said: “You’re right not to go. Giles will be coming home that very Saturday. You couldn’t miss his coming home even if you did miss the dance.”
“But she really mustn’t miss the week-end at Cresswell Abbey,” said Mrs. Bradley. “It’s such a lovely place, I’ve always heard. And she’ll be back on Tuesday.”
“They’ll ask her another time,” said Toppie. “People would ask Alix another time,” and she smiled on at her young friend, well pleased with her, Alix saw.
“Of course they’ll ask her, Mummy!” cried Ruth who, with Rosemary, had sat transfixed with indignation while the invitation was thus discussed. “And it makes no difference if they don’t. Who are the Hambles, anyway! What does Alix care about them? She doesn’t know them and doesn’t want to. I’ve seen your Lady Mary’s picture in the ‘Daily Mirror’—drooping around with bare shoulders and a plume and pretending not to know she’s being snapped. I hate such empty-headed creatures, and Alix would be bored stiff by them. Of course she can’t go! Of course she must be here for our dance!”
Alix was quite sure that she would not be bored by Lady Mary; but she was also sure that she could not go. No one at Heathside would appreciate the white taffeta as Lady Mary would. There would be no one at the Heathside dance she would like as much, she felt sure of it, as those young people at Cresswell Abbey—no one, that is, except Giles; and he, as his mother had said, truly she felt sure, did not count at dances; but all the same she could not go, and Ruth and Rosemary might think, if they pleased, that it was for their reasons.
She did not tell Giles in her next letter about the visit to Cresswell Abbey; but when he came home, Ruth told him, the first thing, at tea-time, all assembled as they were in the drawing-room, Toppie and herself in their accustomed places on the sofa beside Mrs. Bradley, and Ruth sitting on the arm of her brother’s chair.
“Only think of it, Giles! Mummy actually thought she ought to go, because Cresswell Abbey is such a lovely place! The day of our dance, mind you! Toppie’s cousins here and all!”
Giles seemed taken aback. “The week-end? She’d have been going to-day,” he said.
“And missed your coming home, Giles! As if she could!” cried Rosemary.