“I have a bit of news for you,” she announced briefly. “It may be of interest to you. The fact is, you are both going home with me on Wednesday.”
Her companions stared at her. “Don’t be a goose, Dolly. ’Tis very good of you to propose it, but your father and mother, to say nothing of that brother of yours, will want all of your time. They will not care to have strangers there whom they must entertain.”
“They will not entertain you, my dear. I am taking you to entertain a couple of boys whom Fred proposes taking home. Don’t you see how useful you can make yourselves?”
“Elizabeth could,” Mary Sutherland replied quietly, but with a certain wistfulness. “I would be no help at all. I never could talk to boys; then, I have no clothes to wear, and you would be ashamed of me.”
“If you cannot entertain boys, you must learn to do it before you are a week older. No one expects college girls to have many clothes, so that part of the question is disposed of. I am going to send an extra telegram to Mother now, so that she will be sure to get a large turkey. I don’t want you to go hungry when you eat your Thanksgiving dinner with me.”
“But, Dolly–”
“Oh, will you please be still? Both of you? You interrupt me.”
“You are wasting your money by sending that telegram, and your strength in writing it,” said Beth coolly, “for I, at least, am not going.”
But Dolly had a very persuasive way of her own, and in the end both Beth and Mary Sutherland succumbed, the latter, however, not without sundry misgivings. “You know that my dresses are old-fashioned and I cannot afford any new ones. Will you not be ashamed of me?”
“Of course not,” and while that was perfectly true, Dolly knew that she could not take the same pride in introducing Mary that she could in introducing stylish, winning Beth; for Beth, despite her red hair, was strikingly pretty. Her freckles had disappeared with the summer, and her gowns always fitted to perfection. She could play and sing and act. There was no doubt, at all, but that she would prove very popular with Fred’s chums. Beth was small and slender, her eyes were a marvelously deep blue and her complexion fair. Mary was tall, dark and awkward. Her hair was thick, and, properly arranged, showed its full beauty. But Mary knew nothing of the art of dressing. She felt it, and did not want her friend to be ashamed of her. She went to the point directly, which was characteristic of her, when she had once made up her mind on a point.