Polly and Eleanor were deeply touched at the girl’s tale, for they knew how lonely she must have been away from her old associations, in an atmosphere where she was not at home. And such a frivolous mother who could not understand the true blue of such an honest character as Dodo’s!
“Ma sent me to a swell seminary near our new house, but the girls snubbed me, and I never had a pal all the time I was there. When Ma ordered me to come to Europe with her to stock up with fine dresses and then try to make a match for me with some man with a title, I came, but goodness knows! I just hate the idea.”
“Oh, Dodo! You’ll break my heart, if you talk like that!” cried Mrs. Alexander, trying to impress the two other girls with her maternal sorrow.
“Nolla! I almost forgot what I came for,” laughed Polly, to change the subject. “Prof. says for you to come to the salon where they have used Adams period and Louis XIV furniture in the same room. He wants to show us a bad example of decoration.”
“May I come with you?” asked Dodo, eagerly.
“Of course! Come right along,” agreed Eleanor, thrusting her hand through the new friend’s arm and starting away with her.
The moment they were out of hearing, Eleanor said impressively to Dodo: “Don’t you ever give in to that idea of marrying a foreigner! Your mother will soon get over it if you just keep on making her see it’s no use. If you pretend to take up some study like we are doing, she will see you mean business.”
“That’s good advice, and I sure will follow it,” declared the eager girl.
“And Nolla and I will help along all we can,” promised Polly.
“Even if you have to make your mother believe you are in love with Paul Stewart and won’t marry anyone else—then do it!” declared Eleanor, in tones of brave self-sacrifice and renunciation.