"N-no, I suppose you couldn't do that, of course," sighed the other. "Very likely you couldn't do anything, anyway. It's only that I thought—well, I knew you were going home with Elsie after school Monday night to study; and I didn't know but you'd get a chance to say something. But I suppose, after all, there won't be anything you could say."
"No, I suppose there won't," echoed Genevieve, still plainly appalled at the task Cordelia had set for her.
"Well, it's only that I was so sorry for Elsie," sighed Cordelia, as she rose to go.
"Of course! I reckon we're all sorry for Elsie," sighed Genevieve in her turn.
And she was sorry. All the rest of the morning she kept thinking how very sorry she was; and when afternoon came, and when she saw Elsie's lips quiver and her eyes fill with tears, as the others happily discussed whether they would wear colored sashes or white belts with their white dresses, Genevieve's heart quite overflowed with sympathy for Elsie. And she wondered if, after all, it were possible to make Elsie's aunt—understand. Determinedly, then, she declared to herself that, regardless of consequences, she would try—if she had the opportunity.
Genevieve's opportunity came very soon after she arrived at Elsie's home Monday afternoon. Even Genevieve herself had to admit that she could not have had a better one. But so frightened was she that she wished—for a moment—that there were none. Then before her rose a vision of Elsie's tear-dimmed eyes and quivering lips—and with a quick-drawn breath Genevieve rose and followed Mrs. Gale to the sewing-room.
"Come with me," Mrs. Gale had said to Genevieve—Genevieve had picked up a scrap of brown silk from the floor. "That's a piece of the dress I'm making for Elsie to wear to the wedding. The silly child has got a notion she wants white, but you'll think this is pretty, I'm sure." And it was then that Genevieve knew her opportunity had come.
In the sewing-room Mrs. Gale proudly spread the silk dress over a chair-back.
"There! What do you think of that?" she demanded.
Genevieve's heart beat so loudly she thought Mrs. Gale must hear it.