Amazingly, miraculously, Edina found herself the center of interest for the first time since her advent at Three Towers Hall—for the first time in all her hard, drab young life.
The ice once broken, the girls were eager to hear about her purchases. At first Edina was unwilling to talk and Billie answered for her; but gradually the girl’s reticence broke beneath the friendly battery of questions. She found herself answering in a perfectly natural way—not only that, but embellishing the events of the day with a dry humor that captivated her audience.
Some of her packages were opened by the more curious among the girls and passed from hand to hand for comment and inspection.
“Better watch these girls, Edina,” laughed Billie. “They are apt to descend upon your purchases like a swarm of hungry locusts——”
“I may be hungry, but I’m no locust,” said a dark-haired girl, who was sniffing curiously at a jar of cold cream with an exotic label and a delicious fragrance. “Anyway, I’m sure Edina won’t mind if I just take a dab of this stuff.”
“Take the whole thing, if you want it,” Edina offered largely; but Billie gave a little squeal of protest.
“No use giving away everything you own, even if your father has struck oil on that property of his and is making money hand over fist. Take that jar of cream away, Edina, before Jessie eats it. She thinks it’s for dessert.”
So Billie skillfully implanted the notion that Edina was already very rich and growing richer fast. Among those who had snubbed the girl from the West, this would have a disciplinary effect, she thought, and those who were disposed to friendliness toward the new Edina would not be greatly affected by it, anyway.
She could see that the girls were impressed. Edina herself appeared somewhat startled by this frank statement of her fortunes.
“You shouldn’t ’a’ done that,” she whispered to Billie in the flurry of getting packages together for the exodus at Three Towers Hall. “I ain’t exactly superstitious, but seems like I don’t like to talk too much about Paw’s money.”