CHAPTER LXXIX
SURPRISING ALICE AND HARRY
"WE knew you'd be here, and we've come to surprise you!" shouted Bob, Fred, Bettina and Ruth, as they opened the door of the new apartment which was to be the home of Harry and Alice. "We've brought the party with us!" and they held out several bulging baskets.
"Welcome!" smiled Alice, delightedly, as she stepped down from the box on which she was standing to hang a soft, silky curtain. Harry, tall and silent, rose, hammer in hand from the crate he was opening, and welcomed each one in turn.
"Bob and I came to be chaperones if you needed us," said Bettina, putting on a prim and disapproving look, as different as possible from her usual happy expression.
"Oh, my dear!" exclaimed Alice's mother, in a shocked tone. "Surely you didn't imagine—but then, of course you didn't—because you would naturally know that I would be here."
Alice laughed her ringing laugh. "Mother is too literal for any use, Bettina!" And Alice's absent-minded father looked up from the newspaper he was reading to ask what the joke was.
"The joke, Father dear," said Alice, "is that your foolish daughter should be about to marry this solemn and serious youth!" And she turned Harry around by the shoulders till he faced her father. "But perhaps you hadn't heard about the wedding, Father. Now don't tell me you had forgotten!"
"Forgotten? Forgotten your wedding, Alice?" said her mother, astonished. "Of course your father hasn't forgotten. Why, only yesterday he was saying that the cost of a trousseau apparently hadn't lessened since Lillian was married. Weren't you, Father? It was when your new green corduroy came home, Alice, and I was saying——" but Alice had led the girls off to show them over the apartment.