“Oh, it will wash!” laughed Doris. “Yes, I did make it myself. I love to do fancy-work.” Then, in the same breath, “Now tell us all about the trip. I’m tremendously interested.”
“I’m afraid I don’t know a whole lot myself—just the bare facts that you know. But wait till Marj and Alice get here—they’ll tell us everything. By the way, is everybody coming?”
“Everybody but Mae,” replied Doris. “You could hardly expect so recent a bride. In fact,” she added, “I didn’t even invite her. I knew it would be of no use.”
“And she’s too far away—way out there in Ohio,” said Ethel. “I’m afraid we won’t see much of her any more.”
They descended the staircase just in time to see, through the glass door, a taxi stop in front of the house. A moment later five merry, laughing girls jumped out of the machine and skipped up the porch steps. Marjorie Wilkinson, the last to enter the house on account of the delay in paying the driver, decided to make up for lost time, and seized Ethel, Doris, and Marie Louise all at once in one inclusive hug.
“We’re all here!” she cried, joyfully. “Together now—and together all summer! Isn’t it marvellous?”
“Yes, if only Mae were here,” said Lily, who never could forget the absent members.
“And if Doris and I could go with you,” sighed Marie Louise.
“You can’t go?” asked Alice, her face clouding. “Oh, why not, Marie Louise? Are you going to get married too?”
“No, indeed,” replied the other girl, laughingly. “But I am keeping on at art school this summer.”