“If I got up I know I should be worse,” she told Gretel, “and then I might have to stay at home this evening.”
“You’d better be very careful,” said Gretel in a tone of sudden apprehension. “You wouldn’t like to have to stay at home this evening, would you?”
“I should hate it,” Ada declared emphatically. “The Scotts always give such delicious dinners, and Ethel Scott has promised to put me next a most delightful man.”
Gretel was conscious of a sensation of relief.
“Would you like some hot lemonade?” she inquired eagerly. “Mrs. Lipheim once gave me some hot lemonade when I had a cold, and it was very nice.”
Ada said she did not care for lemonade, but added that if Gretel really wanted to make herself useful, she might sew some buttons on her boots.
So, in spite of the fact that there were no lessons to prepare, Gretel spent a busy morning, for after the buttons were sewed on, Ada suggested that the child might arrange her bureau drawers, which were “in an awful jumble,” and that task took so long, that by the time it was finished Mrs. Marsh had returned from her meeting and it was nearly one o’clock.
It had begun to rain soon after breakfast, and by noon had settled into a steady downpour. Mrs. Marsh came in wet and cross, and bewailing the fact that she would be obliged to go out again in the afternoon.
“I shouldn’t think of going under ordinary circumstances,” she declared, “but I really feel it is my duty to go to Mrs. Williams’ tea. I dare say ever so many people will stay away in this storm, but that isn’t my way of doing things. People always appreciate the friends who take the trouble to come to their teas in bad weather.”
Gretel was a little afraid lest the storm should prevent Lillie and Peter from coming that evening, but Dora reassured her on that subject.