Maudie shuddered. "Horrors! Don't mention it--such a fate would be too unspeakable!"
"Yet Elizabeth and I manage to stand it--and I reckon we're as happy as most girls," protested Ruth, stoutly.
"O, that's because you don't know any better. You've never enjoyed the advantages of city life, as I have," said Maudie superiorly.
"I suppose your grandmother gave you a heap of pretty things, as usual," said Elizabeth, anxious to change the subject.
"O yes, a good many," carelessly replied Maudie. "How do you like this diamond ring? She gave me this on my birthday."
She held out her hand, which was adorned with several rings, one of them a small but showily set diamond.
Elizabeth and Ruth viewed the jewel with admiring amazement. Neither one of them had ever seen a diamond before, and to their untutored eyes it represented splendor indeed.
"Try it on," said Maudie affably, pleased with their exclamations of delighted wonder. It was much too large for Elizabeth's slender finger, but it fitted Ruth's plumper one pretty well.
Maudie replaced the ring on her own finger, and lifted out the tray of her trunk. "What are you girls going to wear to-night?" she asked carelessly.
"I'm not going to stay, but Ruth will wear her white dress," said Elizabeth. Somehow Ruth felt as if she couldn't speak of her poor little frock among all Maudie's radiant treasures.