Hetty's eyes sparkled at the idea of having this pleasant variety.
"I shall never be allowed to go," she said.
"Oh, if it is only a frock, you can have one of mine," said Nell; "I got a new one for the last party, and my one before is not so bad."
"It isn't the frock, I am sure," said Hetty; "it is because I am not to be a lady. At least," she added, remembering Edith's rebuke, "I am not to be a party-lady, not a dancing-and-dressing-lady. I am only to be a book-lady, a penwiper-lady, a needle-and-thread-lady, you know, Nell."
"Oh, Hetty! a penwiper-lady!"
"Yes, haven't you seen them at bazaars?" said Hetty, screwing up her little nose to keep from laughing.
"I never know whether you are in earnest when you begin like that," said Nell pouting; "I suppose you don't want to come with us."
However, when Hetty heard that she had really got leave to go "for this once, because Edith and Grace had made such a point of it," there was no mistake about her gladness to join in the fun.
"How will you ever keep me at home after this?" she said, as Phyllis and Nell stood surveying her dressed in one of their cast-off frocks, of a rose-coloured tint which suited her brunette complexion. "I shall be getting into your pockets the next time, and tumbling out in the ball-room with your pocket-handkerchief."
"No one wants to keep you at home, except for your own good," said Phyllis with an air of wisdom.