“I do, indeed.”
“Well, just then Isabel and Virginia came in, while Olivia was getting the gloves out and Isabel said, ‘What are you going to do with your gloves, Olivia?’ Isabel said that it was none of her affair, of course, but she had a feeling that Louise was borrowing them. So when Olivia said that Louise wanted them, Isabel spoke up and asked Louise where her own were. Louise tossed her head and said that they were not as clean as they ought to be for this reception. Then Isabel ‘braced up,’ she said, and asked Louise what Olivia’s were going to look like when she had worn them all evening. ‘Olivia’s have never been worn, and I think anybody who asks to borrow a new pair of white kid gloves has her nerve!’ Can’t you hear Isabel say that? But Isabel was about ready to cry when she first came in. Louise ‘gets on her nerves’ anyway, she says.”
“What did Louise do?”
“Was terribly angry, of course, and flounced out. Olivia cried and Isabel cried, and then came in to see us and get consoled. She said that she would apologize to Louise for the way in which she did it, if she only could be sorry for what she had done.”
“Let’s notice what Louise has on. I’ll wager she gets a pair from somebody else,” said Betty.
The ride was full of joyful anticipations and lively chatter. They drove into the grounds and up to the main building of the academy in style and were met by a detachment of cadets, who helped them out of the ’buses and escorted them into the building, giving them into the care of the matron, and several maids imported for the occasion. Betty looked for Donald, as several girls did for some particular cadet, but saw nothing of him, though Harry Mills was one of the welcoming party. Girls and teachers were taken upstairs, where a large room had been turned into a dressing room. The girls took their time, as girls do, to lay aside their wraps, fix their hair and arrange their collars or ribbons to their satisfaction. In those pre-war days, happily, there was no rouge nor lip-stick fashion to be forbidden by Miss Randolph. She stood, casually enough, near the foot of the stairs as the girls came down, but with a keen glance inspected each one to see that she looked like the lady she should be.
The commandant stood in the door of the reception room, waited till the last girl of the flock had come down the stairs and Miss Randolph turned, then came forward with outstretched hand to greet Miss Randolph, to meet the girls, and in turn to present them to a receiving group of officers which waited near. Then the cadets and other officers or instructors came up to meet the girls whom they knew, and take charge of their particular ladies. What perfectly creased and spotless uniforms there were! How the buttons and gilt braid shone, and how delightful were the erect bearing and courteous manners!
Betty was almost the last one of the girls left by Miss Randolph when Captain Van Horne, who had found Cathalina a few minutes before, came back, consulted with the commandant, said a few words to Miss Randolph which Betty did not catch, and offered Betty his arm. “Miss Barnes, if I may, I will take you over with Miss Van Buskirk and myself. Corporal Hilton is unavoidably detained on duty for a short time and asked me to make his excuses.”
Betty was quite surprised at this, but gracefully accepted Captain Van Horne’s arm and joined Cathalina, who was waiting with a group of the girls and cadets. She noticed Captain Holley’s look of interest and bowed as she caught his eye. She felt a little awkward, in spite of Captain Van Horne’s efforts to put her at ease, and the pleasant attentions of the other young people around her. Lieutenant Maxwell’s remarks kept them all merry, as they enjoyed this short social time before the drills. How jolly and young Miss Randolph and the commandant seemed, but of course they were terribly old—almost fifty at least!
Betty was standing now near the broad window that looked out upon the academy campus, and noticed that Captain Holley was edging over in her direction. He had his sister with him and presently they joined her, Captain Holley standing so that she was temporarily shut off from Cathalina and the rest of that group. “I wonder,” said Captain Holley presently, “if we are going to have rain. I thought it looked cloudy a while ago.”