The young girl looked really troubled and anxious as she spoke and her mother answered in a kindly reassuring tone,
"I am not afraid to trust to your taste or judgment, so you need not be."
"But I shall not know where to go to find what I want, or whether the price asked is a fair one."
"Well, my dear child, even these trifling cares and anxieties we may carry to our kind heavenly Father, feeling sure that so a way will be provided out of the difficulty. Probably your aunt or uncle, or some other friend, will go with you."
The mother's tone was so cheerful and confident that Mildred caught her spirit and grew gay and light-hearted over her preparations.
Although the dressmaking was deferred, there was still enough to be done in the few days of the allotted time, to keep both mother and daughter very busy; which was just as well, as it left them no leisure to grieve over the approaching separation.
The news that she was going so far away and to be absent so long, created some consternation in the little coterie to which Mildred belonged.
Claudina Chetwood and Lu Grange declared themselves almost inconsolable, while Wallace Ormsby was privately of the opinion that their loss was as nothing compared to his.
Months ago he had decided that life would be a desert without Mildred to share it with him; but he had never found courage to tell her so, for he feared the feeling was not reciprocated—that she had only a friendly liking for him.
He had hoped to win her heart in time, but now the opportunity was to be taken from him and given to others. It was not a cheerful prospect; and Mildred was so busy there seemed no chance of getting a word alone with her.