“Sid would not be herself if she were not proud. What a pity that we can’t all be Standishes of New England!”
“You are a sad case, Cad Scott,” laughed Hope. “Good luck to you.”
So it came about that Shirley decided to go directly to Sidney,—with the embarrassing results. Had she persisted, it is most likely that Sidney would have entered into conversation with her. But Shirley’s pride came in there. It had been hard to go to Sidney’s room. She could not stay where she was not wanted. Thinking about it, she concluded that it was, as Madge said, “much ado about nothing.” “Just go right on, Shirley. If Sidney is mad about anything, you have shown that you are ready to make it right. That is enough. If it were any other girl than Sid you would not care. I believe that you are twins!”
Shirley laughed. “It isn’t my way to let things go, unless I’m sure that the other side is altogether unjust. But I can’t help myself, it seems. We’ll drop it.” Within herself Shirley decided not to avoid Sidney, to speak if the opportunity given, but to go right along as usual.
Shirley’s other school-mates were more friendly than ever after the masked party. Without trying, Shirley was taking a position of influence among the girls. She was consulted and sought. She joined one or two clubs, but worked busily at her lessons, encouraged often by the warm letters from her mother. Her father was too busy to do more than to scribble a few lines of affection and advice upon her mother’s letters.
In one of Miss Dudley’s letters she asked, “Have you remembered, Shirley, that you were born in Chicago? I don’t know that we have thought of it in connection with your going to school so near the city. Your father was getting another degree at Chicago University, and your mother was with your grandmother and me in a house that we had rented for a while in Glencoe,—a very attractive suburb,—you must stop off and see it some time.”
To this Shirley wrote, “If I’ve ever been told that I was born anywhere else than at ‘home,’ I have forgotten it. I can’t say that I am pleased to hear it particularly, though it does not matter so much where a body was born, I guess, as who—whom she was born to! I’m certainly glad that I belong to your family, Auntie. Can’t you come on at the Holidays to see me?”
But Miss Dudley could not manage it. The fact was that she was taking every spare cent to meet the expenses for her niece, though she had indulged in an economical summer vacation. She would not tell Shirley this. Let Shirley think that Auntie had plenty.
As the first term speeded to its close, Caroline had several conferences with Hope Holland relative to Shirley, who was expecting to spend the vacation at the school with several other pupils, for whose benefit it would not be closed. Hope wanted Shirley at her home, but so did Caroline, and the fact that Hope belonged to the Double Three made it embarrassing.
“I don’t have to go over to Sidney’s all the time,” she said. “We see each other all the time at school and Mother and Father and the boys will want me there. I suppose I’ll have to go to Sidney’s parties,—not that they will not be fine, as they always are, but I don’t see why I should not invite Shirley.”