“No, I didn’t, Miss!” returned Nell, rather sharply. “I hope you noticed that I was one of those who was ‘honorably mentioned.’”
“Sure. Mr. Sharp let you all down easy,” chortled Bobby.
“I believe the decision in the contest was eminently fair,” declared Laura. “Yet I thought I would surely win.”
“So did I,” cried Nell.
“And I didn’t even dare hope for it,” said Jess, awe-stricken. “It’s just the most wonderful thing that ever happened.”
But Mrs. Morse took the success of “The Spring Road” quite as a matter of course.
“There, Josephine!” she exclaimed. “Now you can have the new clothes you are really suffering for——”
Jess decided that the argument might as well come right then. So she halted her mother on the verge of her plans for renewing the girl’s wardrobe in a style more befitting the means of Lily Pendleton’s mother, than her own!
“We have got to pay our debts,” declared the girl, warmly. “Every penny must be paid, Mother, dear. Let’s be free of bills and duns for once, at least. Let us start square with the world—and stay square if we can.”
Mrs. Morse did not wish her daughter to use the prize money for their general needs. Jess had much trouble to convince her that it would make her, Jess, far happier to do that than to own the finest set of furs, or the most beautiful evening gown, that would be displayed upon the Hill that winter.