“Do you know, girls,” said Billie, as she tied a pink bow around Nancy’s bunch of curls, “I think we should all take lessons in cheerfulness from Mrs. St. Clair. She’s so happy because she always sees the best side of everything. Just see how nice she is to Belle and Fannie Alta, for instance.”
“With this beautiful house and all her money and such a nice, good-natured pink-cheeked boy for a son, I think I could even admire Belle Rogers and Fannie Alta,” observed Mary.
Then Billie remembered that Mary and her mother were always troubled about money, and that Mrs. Price was the gentlest, sweetest woman she had ever known. She wondered if Mrs. St. Clair could ever be ruffled by disappointment and bad luck, or if everything were not exactly as it should be, if she would be the same placid, good-natured soul.
CHAPTER XV.—THE GHOST PARTY.
“I don’t see how you can play any gruesome Hallowe’en tricks in this house, Mrs. St. Clair,” said Billie later at the dinner table. “It’s the abode of cheerfulness. Look at this dining room, for instance. A skull and crossbones wouldn’t even look dismal against this white wainscoting and these pale yellow walls.”
“She’s trying to pump you, mother,” put in Percy. “Now don’t tell her anything.”
Mrs. St. Clair smiled archly. How pretty she looked, Billie thought, in her pink crepe dress, with a beautiful collar of pearls around her throat. Nothing would induce the widow to wear black, and, after a year or two of mourning, she had gone back to colors and cheerfulness.
“He has got some big surprises for you, my dear. I’ll only tell you this much. It will be quite as ghastly as you could possibly desire, and I hope nobody is wearing any clothes that will matter. Your dress, Miss Alta, I am afraid will spot if you do all the things Percy is planning for this evening. What a lovely frock, by the way. I think I have never seen a more beautiful dress for a young girl.”
All eyes were fastened on Fannie’s dress, and there was general surprise among the girls to see that Fannie was wearing an exquisite gown of pale blue satin with an over-dress of blue gauze, edged with narrow silver fringe. In her hair was a wreath of pink roses.
She was quite unembarrassed under the scrutiny of all these people, and smiled complacently at Mrs. St. Clair.