Such a hand clapping as followed. Then, at a motion for dismissal, the girls thronged around Betsy, Sally and Dicky, congratulating and teasing. Invariably, in response to the astonished inquiries, “How in the world did you manage to do it?” all three replied. “Don’t ask us! Ask Virginia!”
“All right. Here is the answer,” that maiden smilingly replied. “You chose a definite goal and then kept working straight toward it just as Mrs. Martin has always told us is the only way to attain success.”
“Hurrah for us!” The irrepressible Betsy sprang up on a ladder that led to a cross-bar. There, holding by one hand, and waving her cherry-red hair ribbon in the other, she recited gaily:
“Three cheers for Virginia Davis,
Who has dragged us along to success.
The very best president there ever was.
Do we love her? Well, I’ll say YES!”
Virginia was pleased when her friends all joined in the cheering, and how she wished her brother Malcolm and Uncle Tex could hear it.
“But I’ll soon be able to tell them all about it,” Virginia thought, with a sudden warm glow in her heart. Then, as the merry throng had started to ascend the basement stairs on the way to their rooms, where they were expected to rest for an hour before dressing for the party, she confided to the girl nearest, “Margaret, just think, in one week you and I will be home on the wonderful desert. Are you glad?”
There was an unmistakable answer in the eyes that were lifted and in the loving squeeze that the older girl felt on her arm, though no word was spoken. Even Virginia did not guess how eager Margaret was to see her guardian, the earnest quiet lad, Malcolm Davis.
At the entrance to Sweet Pickle Alley, Betsy whirled to say: “Sally and I are going to be the belles of the party tonight, so don’t anybody dare to speak a loud word for the next hour, being as we are going to take our beauty nap.”
“You’ll need more than an hour for that——” Bess began teasingly, then she darted for her room, followed by Margaret.
A very unusual silence did settle down on the upper corridor, but it was soon broken by the stealthy opening of a door.