"Tavia, dear," whispered Dorothy.
Tavia's arm stole about Dorothy's neck. She touched the flushed cheek with her dry lips. Then she straightened up in an attitude of defiance.
"I'll stay!" she exclaimed. "I don't care what they think of me."
CHAPTER XX
THE ENTERTAINMENT
How the following day passed Dorothy did not want to remember. From the early morning, when she sent the telegram to Mr. Travers, stating that Tavia could not possibly leave, and that a letter to follow would explain, until the hour set for the charity performance, the girl was in one continuous whirl of excitement.
Ned's accident did not prove to be as serious as had been feared, although there was no possibility of him being about for several days, at least.
In the excitement and emergency Tavia had marshaled all her individual forces, and proved herself worthy to be a friend and chum of Dorothy Dale. With her change of heart—her resolution to "stick to Dorothy"—there seemed to come to her a new power, or, at least, it was a return of the power with which she had previously been accredited.
So the final work of preparation was accomplished, and now it seemed to be merely a matter of raising and lowering the curtain.