She was flattered by this, of course, but it was not until the word “Dancing” caught her eye that she realized the true significance of the invitation.
“Dancing!” She adored it. At the High School she was recognized as the best dancer of all the younger girls. She was! She knew she was! She was adorable, fascinating, wonderful when she danced. She was! She knew she was!
She gave her mother the invitation and in a voice trembling with emotion said: “Oh, mother, may we go? May we?”
Mary and Jeremy, who saw that they also were concerned in this mysterious affair, stopped eating.
Mrs. Cole looked at the card. “Mrs. Mulholland! How good of her! And she really hardly knows us! We’ve only exchanged calls.”
“Mrs. Mulholland! That’s the woman out at Cleek,” said Aunt Amy, who always liked to feel that she was the real directress of the Cole family affairs. “Has she asked the children to a party?”
“Yes—to a dance on the tenth!”
“Well, of course they can’t go,” said Aunt Amy decisively. “Cleek’s much too far.”
Now it happened that on that particular morning Mr. Cole was feeling considerably irritated by his sister-in-law. He often felt like this and spent many half-hours in wondering why his sister-in-law and his brother-in-law—neither of them at all sympathetic to him—occupied his house. And then he remembered that his sister-in-law at least shared in the expenses of the family, and that without that share finances would be difficult.
But this morning even this thought did not overcome his dislike of his sister-in-law. He was ready to contradict anything that she said.