“You may tell the gentlemen we will see them on the piazza in ten minutes, boy,” she said, commencing to unpin her veil as she spoke.
They were much longer than ten minutes, however, in making the proper toilets in which to receive their distinguished guests. Miss Campbell put on a lavender silk she usually wore in the afternoon. Nancy insisted on wearing her very best lingerie and a leghorn hat with a wreath of pink roses encircling the crown.
Billie removed a linen suit only slightly wrinkled and replaced it with a fresh one as dazzling white as the snow that caps the Atlas Mountains. Elinor wore a beautiful creamy organdy trimmed with real lace, a gown that she had been saving for Mrs. Duffy’s next party; and little Mary attired herself in the daintiest and prettiest muslin that that clever mother of hers had ever made.
“Shall I wear my hat or not?” asked Miss Campbell, taking a final survey of herself in the cheval glass. “Billie, you have lived in Europe. Is it customary over there to receive visitors at hotels in bonnets in the morning?”
“Dearest Cousin,” laughed Billie, “I never received a visitor in my life that I can remember except some of Papa’s friends, and I never wore a bonnet for them. I suppose people in very high society may do as they please. Papa told me he saw a funny, shabby old English lady once at a hotel who turned out to be a real duchess. But she poured her tea into a saucer and drank it, and when her granddaughter remonstrated Papa heard her say in a deep bass voice: ‘My dear child, don’t you know a Duchess may drink tea from a tin pail if she chooses?’”
“Very good, my dear, we are American princesses and it’s nobody’s business whether we wear hats or not. Now, are you ready? Let me see how all of you look first. Very charming and lovely, my four little rosebuds. I am quite proud of you. Am I all right?”
“Sweet as a peach,” answered Billie.
“Now, children, let me caution all of you not to let two foreign noblemen make you feel ill at ease. They are not a bit better than you are, remember, no matter how many titled generations they may have back of them.”
“I wonder if they live in castles,” said Nancy with a little fluttering laugh that showed the state of her feelings better than words could tell.
Elinor swept along with her proud head held high. Her friends decided that she looked the part of a noble princess to perfection. Mary, with a feeling of timidity, stuck close to Miss Campbell’s side, and Billie, feeling rather bashful herself about confronting these grand strangers, brought up the rear of the procession. Miss Campbell stepped resolutely into the elevator, determined not to be frightened by two paltry titles, and in this wise they approached the hotel piazza, unable to disguise from themselves that they were all feeling slightly shaky in the region of the knee joints.