“Nothing there,” said Cora, peering into the hall. “The corridor’s perfectly empty. It was probably Miss Woodruff rising from her nap.”
“Wouldn’t it be better,” suggested Maude, thoughtfully eying gorgeous Augusta, “if she were to wear her everyday dress over these things when she goes down to dinner!”
“Yes, indeed,” agreed Henrietta. “I’ll tell you what, Augusta. Let’s keep this a lovely surprise for the girls tonight. Not the curls. We’ll just slick those down a bit with a wide black ribbon. But we’ll pull some black stockings over the pink ones and cover your skirt and blouse. The first minute after dinner we’ll rush right up and peel you and put on the pink bows and beads and things. This is just sort of a dress rehearsal.”
“The Highland Hall girls simply won’t know you when they see you at the festival,” assured Maude, when Augusta had agreed to keep the secret until her arrival at the church parlors. Poor Augusta was not accustomed to so much attention from Maude, Henrietta and Cora, all of whom she had admired from a distance, and it pleased her. And, in their hilarious state over the success of their joke, the three naughty girls failed to realize that in making a laughing stock of poor silly Augusta they were not playing fair.
It is true that they suffered a few twinges during dinner time when pleased Augusta beamed at them with a new friendliness and insisted on dividing her dessert among them; but when the proper time came, they peeled her remorselessly, bedecked her with the ridiculous pink bows and smuggled her into the procession without giving the secret away.
The girls not in the secret were surprised; but after all, it was the plotters themselves who were the most completely astonished.
Augusta in all her pinkness—not to mention her blueness and greenness—was a conspicuous object; she was visible from any place in the big room. Now, the Theological students were not to arrive until much later; but the younger boys from Hiltonburg were there in full force. There was an expectant flutter among the Highland Hall girls. On a similar occasion, introduced by some of the day pupils, these same boys had treated several of them to ice cream. Perhaps they’d do it now. Extra ice cream would be very welcome for they had all spent their weekly pocket money and Doctor Rhodes felt that he was sufficiently generous when he provided one helping apiece for his large flock.
But now, with one accord, all the boys at the festival, attracted by Augusta’s brilliant attire and not yet of an age to be critical, were seized with a yearning to treat gorgeous Augusta to ice cream. They begged to be introduced. They begged to be allowed to offer Augusta ice cream and yet more ice cream. And cake and yet more cake.
The wondering girls, staring at blushing Augusta, were amazed to see that she was actually pretty, in spite of her outrageous clothes, for her curled hair fell tenderly and becomingly about her glowing face, her eyes were like stars and she fairly radiated happiness as she ate dish after dish of ice cream. There seemed to be no limit to her capacity.
“And here we are,” breathed Henrietta, “sitting in a long row like so many sheep—”