“It would be very sad for me if my poor little orphaned sister were refused,” said the man, who had been listening eagerly; “but please, young ladies, say nothing about it to Mrs. Abbott; I prefer to open the matter myself when I call on her this evening.”
He touched his hat very politely then and turned back, murmuring something about securing a room at the tavern.
“Wasn’t he horrid!” exclaimed Fannie, almost before he was beyond hearing her words.
“Horrid!” agreed Bell, giving a great sigh of relief as she looked into the milliner’s window and saw that the shop was empty. But they had hardly seated themselves on two tall stools in front of the counter before Miss Blake came in full of apologies for staying twice as long as she intended.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE ADVENTURE DISCUSSED.
The ribbons were criticised, approved, or condemned, according to the various tastes of the girls. Those who were familiar with the difficulties attending country shopping were disposed to be satisfied, and thought the committee had done as well as they could have done themselves, which is as high praise as can be expected from any body.
But the candy purchases gave unmixed delight to those who had sent for it, and ecstatic little screams of glee hailed the opening of the packages. The second class—that is, the little girls—had gone up to Miss Blake’s room for the regular twilight twenty minutes of poetry that they had three times a week, and the first-room girls all adjourned to the spare room to embellish the dolls with the newly acquired ribbons. It was then that the candy was produced and generously distributed by its owners.
“Now tell us all about the excursion,” said Katie, with her mouth full of caramels and her hands busy with a blue ribbon. “Of course Miss Smith was perishing to know what you wanted of so many shades of ribbon, wasn’t she?”
“Yes,” said Bell; “but she’s a dear old soul, and when we told her about the dolls she offered to make a dozen straw hats for them, and she’s going to send them up to-morrow.”