“Don’t think this is a sample of what you are to expect, honey, but realize that some of these hats you are asked to make are nothing but fools’ caps,” admonished Josie. “They are for those who are coming to you out of mere curiosity. A lot of the trade will stick though, I am sure, because you are going to make the most stylish and the loveliest hats in all Dorfield. I am glad to see you are laying in the very best materials too. That’s where your having been rich will serve to your advantage. You know, it is hard for persons who never have spent money to begin and, when one has been accustomed to the best, it is an easy matter to supply others with what you have been used to yourself. I’ll wager within a month you are going to feel that, to do your customers credit, you must take a trip to New York to get the latest styles and, in not such a dim distant future you will be running across to Paris to get in touch with the last cry in the way of millinery. I tell you, Mary Louise, you are going to be a fine business woman before we know it.”
Mary Louise smiled. She tried to do it cheerfully and not let any sadness creep into her expression. The girls were so good to her and so encouraging. It seemed to be her duty to respond to their kindness by trying to be happy. She was happy in a way too, happier than she had dreamed it possible she could ever be again. She was busy from morning until night with no time in her schedule to indulge in vain regrets. First, the Higgledy Piggledy Shop must be cleaned and their bed rooms made up and the breakfast dishes washed. Elizabeth Wright came to business in time to help with the cleaning of the shop. There was such a variety of wares that unless it was kept in very good order there was danger of its having the appearance of a junk shop, Josie declared, and so the girls swept and dusted and tidied up the place with meticulous care every morning. By the time the customers began to arrive, it was spotless and orderly with a bright fire burning in the grate in the front of the place and all traces of light housekeeping removed from sight.
It began to be the fashion in Dorfield to meet one’s friends at the Higgledy Piggledy Shop. It was centrally located, in spite of the fact that the building was more or less tumbled down and very shabby, and it was proving a convenient spot.
“I’ll just meet you at the Higgledy Piggledy,” could often be heard among the gay set in Dorfield.
“I’ve been thinking,” said Mary Louise one evening late after the last customer had departed and the girls had drawn up close to the fire for a cheering cup of tea.
Elizabeth had decided not to go home but to spend the night on a convenient Chesterfield that had been sent to the shop to be sold on commission, and Irene was to have tea with her friends and later on Bob Dulaney was to come by and wheel her home, a task in which he delighted.
“Well, what have you been thinking?” asked Josie. “So have I been thinking and I still am.”
“I have been thinking we are wasting an opportunity here at the Higgledy Piggledy.”
“An opportunity for what?” beamed Josie, whose theory that Mary Louise was by the way of becoming a great financial factor in the business world was still supreme with her.
“An opportunity for making money and for becoming more—more useful to the community in which we live,” blushed Mary Louise.