“I was afraid I wasn’t going to have a single chance to wear it here,” she remarked naïvely.
The boys were busy shining their shoes, and performing certain mysteries of shaving with very little perceptible change in their appearance. Ernest felt that he could not possibly go without a new necktie, but as no one was going to town before the event, 144he had to content himself with borrowing one from Frank.
It took the combined efforts of Marian and Gertie and Mrs. Morton to get the revellers dressed to their satisfaction. Gertie waited on the two girls as patiently as any maid. Marian was in great demand by the boys to coax in refractory cuff buttons and give a “tony” twist to the ties.
“Is tony the very latest, Ernest?”
“That’s what Sherm says. Just make the bow a little more perky, can’t you, Marian? I don’t want to look like a country Jake.”
“Ernest, you are just the boy to go to Annapolis; you are so fussy about your clothes.”
“Golly, I hope I do get to go. Father hasn’t heard from the Senator yet, but he may be away from home.”
Sherm was struggling with his tie, getting red and hot in the process. He had just tied it nearly to his satisfaction, when he carelessly gave it a jerk and had it all to do over again.
“Cæsar’s Ghost!” he exclaimed vengefully, “what do they make these things so pesky slippery for?”
Marian laughed and Sherm colored in embarrassment over his outburst.