For Amanda and her chum were dressed in their Sunday best—poplin dresses with a huge, gorgeous flower design that made the pretty, delicate-colored dresses of the other girls look pale and washed-out by comparison. If Amanda’s and Eliza’s desire was to be the most noticeable and talked-of girls on the parade, they were certainly going to succeed. The talk had begun already!
However, the arrival of the carryall cut short the girls’ amusement, and there was great excitement and noise and giggling as the girls—all who could get in, that is—clambered in.
There were about a dozen left over, and these the driver promised to come back and pick up “in a jiffy.”
“I’m feeling awfully nervous,” Laura confided to Billie. “I never expected to be nervous; did you?”
“Yes, I did,” Billie answered truthfully. “I’ve been nervous ever since the boys invited us. It’s because it’s all so new, I guess. We’ve never been to anything like this before.”
“I’m frightened to death when I think of meeting Captain Shelling,” Connie leaned across Vi to say. “From what the boys say about him he must be simply wonderful.”
“Paul had better look out,” said Laura slyly, and Connie drew back sharply.
“I think you’re mean to tease Connie so,” spoke up Vi. “She doesn’t like Paul Martinson any better than the rest of us do, and you know it.”
“Oh, I do, do I——” began Laura, but Billie broke in hastily.
“Girls,” she cried, “stop your quarreling. Look! We’re at the Academy. And—look—look——” Words failed her, and she just stared wonderingly at the sight that met her eyes. It was true, none of them had ever seen anything like it before.