“Just here,” directed Gloria. “I suppose I can keep it in my room——”
“With a cover. Miss Alton she always likes pretty covers over trunks.” Sam shifted the little table to give more space. “There, I guess that’ll be all right——”
“Oh, yes; thanks.” A half dollar was pressed into his convenient hand, and Gloria did not hide her impatience to be rid of the voluble Sam. He went. Girls were calling for him and there might be more tips.
Quickly Gloria fell to her trunk task but it did not readily give in to her key.
“Queer, but I suppose it’s stiff, being new,” she reasoned.
The rose colored dress, that which Jane insisted was most becoming to Gloria’s dark hair and dark eyes, would be found in the top tray of the new trunk, and this was to be the “irresistible gown” Trixy suggested as a flabbergaster for the first evening’s appearance.
“There!” exclaimed Gloria, as a spring of the lock indicated surrender. “Now I’ve got it.”
But raising the cover did not disclose the expected rose voile dress.
“Of all things!” gasped Gloria. “Whatever is—this?”
She was staring at a mass of glittering beads, or spangles, that seemed to fill the trunk tray. Just a hint of some material very green showed beneath the glistening surface, but whatever the article might be, it never had belonged to the girl looking at it.