“Well,” Barbara read on, “mother has had a letter from Mr. Stuart; but Ruth’s letter will give her this news. He writes that his new gold mine is a perfect wonder. I am so glad for you, Ruth, dear!” Barbara ended.
“Oh!” Ruth exclaimed. “Father is so lucky! But we really don’t need any more money. Just think, father only has Aunt Sallie and poor me to spend it all on. If he only had a big family it would be worth while to grow richer and richer. I wish you were really my sisters. Then you would let me share some of all this money with you, Bab dear,” whispered Ruth in her best friend’s ear, as the two girls dropped behind Mollie and Grace.
Barbara shook her head. Yet the tears started to her eyes in spite of the fact that she was out on the street. “You generous darling!” she replied. “If you aren’t sharing your money with us by giving us all these good times, what are you doing? But, of course, we couldn’t take your money in any other way. Mollie and I are used to being poor. We don’t mind it so very much. Let’s hurry. Aunt Sallie will want us to put on our best clothes for our call at the Ambassador’s. Thank goodness for Cousin Betty’s present to Mollie and me of the silk suits. We have never had such fine clothes before in our lives.”
“Miss Sallie,” inquired Barbara, an hour later, “will Mollie and I do for the call at the Ambassador’s? You know this is the great event in our lives. Who knows but the Ambassador may even shake hands with humble me! Do Ambassadors shake hands, Aunt Sallie? Why, ‘The Automobile Girls’ may meet the President some day, we are getting so high in the world.”
“Who knows indeed, Barbara?” responded Miss Stuart complacently. “Far more unlikely things have often happened. You and Mollie look very well, dear. Indeed, I never saw you in more becoming frocks. They are very dainty and stylish.”
“Aunt Sallie,” confessed Mollie, “I never had a silk dress before in all my life. Bab had one made over from an old one of mother’s, but this is positively my first appearance ‘in silk attire.’”
Bab’s costume was of apricot rajah silk, made with a plaited skirt and a long coat, which fastened across her chest with a single gilt ornament. With it she wore a delicate lace blouse over silk of the same shade as her suit. Her hat was a large black chip with one long curling feather.
Mollie’s dress was like Bab’s, except that it was a delicate shade of robin’s-egg blue, while her hat was of soft white felt, trimmed with a long blue feather.
“Let us look at ourselves in the mirror, Bab, until Miss Sallie is ready,” whispered Mollie. “I want to try to get used to my appearance. Maybe you think this wealthy-looking person you now behold is some relative of yours—possibly your sister! But just understand that, as I look at myself in that mirror, nothing can make me believe I am poor little Mollie Thurston, of Kingsbridge, New Jersey! Why, I am now about to call on the English Ambassador, younger brother to an earl. But I am a brave girl. I shall put on as bold a front as possible, and I shall try not to disgrace Aunt Sallie by making any breaks.”
“You goose you!” laughed Bab. “But to tell you the truth, sweet Mistress Mollie, I feel pretty much as you do. There is Ruth calling us. They are ready to start.”