“It all looks good to me,” said Madeline, “but—is there a top to spin?”
Lucile laughed and nodded. “That fat Miss Austin has taken in two dollars already at five cents a spin. She says she used to love making cheeses, and that she hasn’t had such a good time since she grew up.”
“That’s where I want to go first,” said Madeline decisively; but on her way to the tops the doll counter beguiled her.
“Betty Wales,” she declared, “when you curl in your lips and stare straight ahead you look just like the only doll I ever wanted. I saw her in a window on Fifth Avenue, and the one time in my life that I ever cried was when daddy wouldn’t buy her for me. Where’s Eleanor?”
“I don’t know,” said Betty happily. “She was here a minute ago playing for the dolls’ pantomime. But she’s all right. Everybody has been thanking her and praising the pantomime, and she’s so pleased about it all. She told me that she had felt all this year as if everybody was pointing her out as a disgrace to the class and the college, and that she was beginning to think that her whole life was spoiled. And now—”
“Why, Madeline Ayres,” cried Katherine Kittredge hurrying up to them, her hair disheveled and her hands very black indeed. “I’m awfully glad you’ve come. There’s a class meeting to-morrow to decide on the senior play and I want—”
“You want tidying up,” laughed Madeline. “What in the world have you been doing?”
“Being half of a woolly lamb,” explained Katherine. “The other half couldn’t come back this evening, so Emily has been selling us—or it, whichever you please—at auction. Now listen, Madeline. You don’t know anything about this play business.”
Madeline had heard Katherine’s argument, spun Miss Austin, and seen the “Alice in Wonderland” animals dance before she found Eleanor, and by that time an interview with Jean Eastman had prepared her for the hurt look in Eleanor’s eyes and the little quiver in her voice, as she welcomed Madeline back to Harding.
Jean was one of the few seniors who had had no active part in the toy-shop. “So I’m patronizing everything regardless,” she exclaimed, sauntering up to Madeline and holding out a bag of fudge. “It’s a decided hit, isn’t it? Polly says the other classes are in despair at the idea of getting up anything that will take half as well.”