“Was that Laurie? or Lily, Aunt Zoe?” asked Lulu. “Such pretty names as you have given them!”
“Yes, I think so. It was Laurie that cried out then; he’s not so quiet as Lily; but one must expect a boy to make more noise in the world than a girl.”
“But how can you tell which is which, Aunt Zoe,” queried Grace; “they look exactly alike to me.”
“To me too; but see, we have put a gold chain round Lily’s neck, and Laurie has none.”
“Ah, no wonder he cries out at such favoritism,” remarked the captain sportively.
“Sure enough!” exclaimed Zoe; “strange I had not thought of it before. But he shall have that excuse no longer; he shall wear that lovely necklace of pink coral beads Ned gave me on my last birthday. Lu, if you will go to my jewel-case and get it, I’ll be much obliged.”
“I will, Aunt Zoe; I’m delighted with the errand,” exclaimed Lulu, hurrying into the adjoining dressing-room.
She had been there often enough to know where to find what she had been sent for, and was back again in a moment with it in her hand.
“Thank you, Lu. Hand it to mamma, please,” said Zoe. “She will put it on him; I’d like to do it myself, but presume I wouldn’t be allowed, they are all so exceedingly—I’d almost said absurdly—careful of me.”
“It would be better for you not to make the effort, my dear,” Grandma Elsie said, taking the necklace from Lulu’s hand.