“I hope you feel we are all as friendly as we really want to be, Mary,” Gloria said, moving away, “and if you feel like having a good old fashioned chat, drop into our room, won’t you? We are the champion chatterers of the house. I must run along. Call me if you want to go to the station when I’m going. I should think that would be in about three quarters of an hour. Meanwhile I’ll go at the essay once more. If you see Jack this morning, give her my love. I suppose we will be debarred for the present.”
“No more company, is the order,” said Mary. “Thank you, Gloria, for your—confidence. You see, sometimes we cannot be as confidential as we might like to be. I have always longed for, yet dreaded boarding school, and now—I wonder!” She brought her lips together in a half smile and at the moment Gloria could not help noticing how pretty she was.
Hurrying back to the expectant essay, Gloria kept wondering how Mary would look in a dainty pink, and amethyst lavender or a soft green frock.
“With her skin and hair she ought to look angelic,” was her final decision.
Trixy was gone from the room when Gloria returned. This morning all the girls were bent upon tests or preparations for them. With something like real affection Gloria picked up the unfinished pages of her theme. She scarcely felt the time passing until the half hour struck on the big hall clock. A few more words, just a better one here or there, then a hurried scanning, and she reluctantly dropped her pen on the glass tray.
“Hope I can get back before noon,” she was thinking. “I can easily dispose of Jane for an hour. She’s such an understanding dear.” This thought was very satisfying and created a happy smile. “And one good hour more will surely clean up the effort! Just for dad’s sake I do so want it to be creditable,” Gloria was thinking. Then the necessary haste forced itself upon her.
Meeting Jane for the first time since she had been at Altmount meant fixing up, and having the day free from classes meant the opportunity of wearing regular, not uniform, garb. Gloria quickly selected her bright red “sleeveless,” and this over a simple white blouse would be sure, she knew, to please Jane.
But the neck needed a red tie. She looked for one in both top drawers but none came to light.
“A pin, oh, I know!” she almost exclaimed aloud, “I’ll wear the little dark stone necklace. It will go just right with this red garb.”
No need to hunt for that; it always lay safely in Trixy’s little box and from that receptacle in the corner of the drawer, Gloria now brought it forth.