"Well, you will have a nice time in New York anyway," consoled Bee, who was trying very hard not to be excited. "Doesn't the city look beautiful?"
"It's wonderful!" agreed Adele ecstatically. "Next to going to Egypt I would rather be here than anywhere. How tall the buildings are!"
"Aren't they?" answered Bee with enthusiasm. "They seem just like cliffs with swallows nests in them. The buildings, the crowds, the shops, and now this great steamer, and all the other vessels seem marvelous to me. Just look what a picture it makes, Adele."
Adele leaned over the railing of the iron-girted steamer, and looked long and earnestly at the wondrous city lying under the flicker of Liberty's torch.
The rugged sky line along the western shore of the city was indeed picturesque under the afternoon sun. The sky was of deepest blue with not a cloud to mar its brilliancy. The silver and gray waters of the bay were dotted with crafts of every description. Saucy tugs darted hither and thither watching for opportunities to offer their services to some great liner to put out from its dock; ferry boats plied unceasingly between the New York and the Jersey shores; excursion steamers crowded with pleasure seekers passed and repassed until one would suppose the entire population of the city was on merrymaking bent. Sail boats, and great steamers like their own filled the docks, or dotted the waters.
All West Street was crowded with people come to see the departure of the liners. Across the broad plaza of the street came hansom cabs, automobiles, coaches, and vehicles bristling with trunks and other baggage; fruiterers' wagons scraped wheels with florists' vehicles, and venders of every sort with their wares filled the spaces between in search of possible purchasers.
Inside the pier the cabs threaded their way through freight piled mountains high to canvas covered gangways leading to the first saloon. The promenade deck was crowded with those who were to sail, and those who had come to see them off. Some were walking up and down the deck excitedly, others were standing about in groups. It was a busy, exciting scene. One so new to the girls that they found the pain of parting swallowed up in the excitement of the event. The older people, too, were strangely silent, and seemed influenced by the bustle about them.
"You will come back so learned there will be no living with you," declared Adele presently, turning her back upon the confusion of the wharf, and with a half envious note in her voice. "And a beauty, too, I expect. You are almost that now, Bee, with your eyes shining so, and that uplifted look on your face."
Bee gazed at her thoughtfully.
"Do you know, Adele," she said at length, "that I don't believe that I shall ever want to be a beauty again. It is all true, just as everybody told me; it doesn't matter in the least about looks, after all. When I was thinking about that and nothing else, everything went wrong. But when I thought about other people and giving them pleasure they tried to do the same by me. Now that Butterfly Dinner: I didn't think of anything in the world but giving those scientists a nice dinner, and a little fun. Just see what it did for me! They have made me father's secretary. Oh, I am going to try to be so good and so sweet that I will deserve all this honor that has come to me!"