When all was completed, the girl stood aside to contemplate her work. “You look like a dream, a perfect poem. You’ll be the sweetest thing there, Adee. Oh, I’m glad I belong to you. Put on your gloves. Sally says to let the tops wrinkle; not to draw them tight. There.”
Beth wore a simple white frock that had been made for the senior reception. When she had finished dressing, she came to the door of Eliza’s room with a little box in her hand.
“Adee—I’ll have no gloves, you know. The girls do not intend to wear them; but Sally and Helen both wear rings. Don’t you think it would be all right if I would wear these?” She opened the box, and taking out the rings which she believed belonged to the woman who had been killed when Old Prince had taken fright, she held them up for Eliza to see.
“They fit me, Adee. I’d dearly love to wear them. They’re rather odd, but I think they are prettier than the ones the girls wear. May I wear them, Adee?”
Eliza considered. “The only thing against your wearing them is that they might be lost. You may need them sometime if you ever meet your own people. You know that I have always had a feeling, Beth, that sometime you’ll find, somewhere, sisters or brothers; perhaps you have a father living.”
“It’s strange he did not try to find me. Sometime, I feel, Adee, that no one but my mother wanted me. When she was killed, no one came. If any one had cared, don’t you think they would have hunted for me everywhere. I’d walk from town to town until I dropped from weariness. But no one looked for me, Adee. I’m to be your girl always and forever, Adee. No one else ever wanted me, it seems.” She smiled up at Eliza. She was really very happy and contented. Only a few times had she permitted herself to think that she was without kin of any kind. Sometimes she longed for her mother. She knew that no one, however kind and lovable, could ever take a mother’s place. But she loved Adee dearly, and had made up her mind that she would make neither her foster-mother nor herself miserable about that which could not be remedied. She stood looking at Eliza with an appealing look in her eyes.
“Well, I presume it really will make no difference. They are your rings and you are surely old enough now to take care of them. Wear them if you wish, Beth.”
CHAPTER XVII.
The reception parlors were massed with ferns, palms and roses. The soft strains of an orchestra floated through the rooms. There were men in full dress and women in soft-tinted gowns, moving about like a swarm of gay butterflies. The receiving line was made up of a dozen women. Miss Ellis stood at the head, next to her was Mrs. Laurens who was an officer in the National Federation of the Club. Then came Eliza. They had barely time to take their places before the guests began making their way from the dressing-rooms on the floor above. A colored man, in full evening dress, stood in the doorway and called out the names of those entering. The head of the line shook hands, introduced the person to the next in line, and so each one passed on. There were so many that the names became but a jumble to Eliza. “Dr. James Smith, Mrs. Ellington Roche, Miss Brown,” and so on. She smiled, shook hands and handed the guest on to the next. She was performing her duties in a mechanical sort of way, forgetting name and person the instant he had passed before her. Suddenly she started and became very much alert. Mrs. Laurens was addressing her personally. “Miss Wells, permit me to introduce Dr. William Barnes Hillis, the scientist. He has asked to be introduced. I am surprised that you have not met before. Dr. Hillis has been in your neighborhood for a year, living the life of a hermit in order that he might finish his new book and win new laurels.”
Eliza extended her hand. Speech failed her. She looked up into the laughing eyes of the “tramp.” He was dressed in conventional evening dress.