"Yes, I can almost see how my skirt hangs with it. I found it at a fair in Frisco. It was a prize sample. And, Jane dear, I have one for you, in a brown that matches your hair, but I was so disappointed that the initials were not on it, and I had to send it back. It will be ready, though, by the time we get to New York once again."
"Oh, how--wonderful!" and Jane squeezed the hand that still brushed the candy box. "Judy, I have held off from a 'vanity' because I have been too vain to invest in one. Do you know, I think, honestly, that when we deliberately ignore conventions we usually do it through pride? Too proud to depend on a traveling boudoir."
"Oh, no, dearie, not at all," contradicted Judith. "Only, you can depend on your looks staying--regular Yale. There, that's a joke. Jane Allen has Yale locks of copper and--iron. Warranted not to yield, nor break, nor open without the registered key. But I know, Janie, you will like your bag. I was no end disappointed not to bring it along with me."
"But it is rather nice to have one surprise saved," Jane insisted. "We have been using up a lot of joys lately, don't you think?"
"Yes, we have been joying extravagantly," agreed Judith. "But Wellington has a reserve stock, you know. Just think of our little Helka. Did we decide she had blue or gray eyes?"
"Oh, they must be blue, we have too many grays," Jane replied. "But what concerns me most of all is the adorable task of fitting her out in school togs. Wasn't it lovely dad's scholarship went to a real little--primitive? That is, I suppose she is unspoiled, although how do we know? She may not deign to look at us," and Jane smiled at the incongruity.
"Wouldn't it be a joke," soliloquized Judith. "What if she is a pre-war aristo'? And suppose she only touches Wellington at the extreme corners? Might even be a little nobility snob, for all we know."
"The more fun in store at the discoveries," Jane said. "But I feel she will be just as I picture her. A little blonde, with blue eyes and a name no one can pronounce."
"What does Helka mean?"
"Oh, that is Helen in Polish. As she is a 'Helen' I think she will be pretty. They mostly are," Jane reflected.