Thanks to the sociability of their new friends, they had no time to change their dresses. But whisk brooms were brought forth, collars and belts smoothed into place, and shoes rubbed with a cloth for want of time to polish them.
This concession to respectability together with freshly washed faces and smooth, shining hair wrought a pleasing change in the girls. When the supper gong rang they looked as well groomed as though they had just been freshly tubbed and had had a change of clothes from head to foot.
Jessie Robinson was true to her promise and appeared at their door just as the supper gong rang.
"Doris and Gladys are still primping," she explained, out of breath with haste. "Miss Jane can't bear tardiness, so I told them I'd come on without them. Are you ready?"
"All ready," said Jo, and added with exasperation: "Except Sade, who seems to have gone back to the wash basin!"
"I found a smudge on the side of my nose," Sadie explained, rubbing the offending spot vigorously as she hurried toward them. "Is it off now?" anxiously.
"If it isn't, it won't be," replied Jo. "Come on!"
But Nan added reassuringly.
"All O. K., Sadie dear. You're as fresh as the flowers in June—or is it May?"
Jessie led them through the hall and down the broad flight of stairs that they had already twice ascended. They met other groups of girls and mingled with them in a happy spirit of comradeship.