“If you have some gold beads when you go back to school,” suggested Jacqueline, “the others will all be just green with envy.”
Eleanor wavered.
“I guess perhaps I will get me beads,” she said, and snapped the purse upon the precious five dollars.
“You haven’t got much time before school opens,” Jacqueline insinuated. “And you can’t buy good beads in Longmeadow, or in Baring Junction, either.”
“Maybe we’ll go to Boston next week,” Eleanor said hopefully.
Jacqueline dared all.
“I have some gold beads,” she said, and took the golden strand from the pocket of the Peggy Janes, and dangled them before Eleanor’s astonished eyes. “Say, aren’t they crackerjacks?”
“Go on!” sniffed Eleanor. “They’re brass from the ten-cent store.”
“Much you know about beads!” scoffed Jacqueline. “Just you look at that clasp, with a real pearl in it. Fourteen carat gold those beads are, and they cost ten dollars. I got ’em Christmas before last.”
Eleanor fingered the beads with a reverence that was tinged with envy.