“Still, she made the girls look all right,” answered the mother.
“Well, to be sure—to be sure,” muttered John Dodd.
“Now listen, John. The girls have been speaking to me; I assure you, poor darlings, they don’t like to be badly dressed. Now what do you say to this. Why not give them an allowance each, and let them spend it as they please, and where they please? It will teach them the value of money, which every girl ought to know, and I can vouch for it that you won’t have to complain of their appearance in the future.”
“That’s not a bad notion; is it your own?” said Dodd.
“Well, I confess that Gracie did speak about it.”
“It didn’t come from that Kitty wench?”
“No, she has never touched on the subject of dress in my presence.”
“Well, then, Mary Anne, right you are. I’ll give them a handsome allowance each; but, first of all, you must take them to London, and rig ’em up with decent clothes. You can take that other child with you too, and give her a frock or two; it will help the aunt, poor soul.”
Thus Kitty had her own way, and came back to The Red Gables School handsomely attired and fit to compete with all her might and main for the Howard miniature. Who now so obliging as Kitty? Who in all the school wore so sunshiny a face? Who was so ready to help her neighbours, more particularly when the schoolteachers could be seen anywhere round? Kitty was, in short, in her element; she even tried to make things up with Peggy, but Peggy firmly and decidedly declined her advances.
“I haven’t got anything to do with ye,” said Irish Peggy. “I like ye no more now than I did at first, and so I say plain and straight.”