Twenty times a day did Elizabeth gaze upon it as it lay on green cotton in a pink box, and at last it was tied up in tissue-paper with a colored ribbon, and carried to Patsy's house, for the hour for the party had arrived.
Elizabeth Herrick had grown to be quite a tall girl, and in many respects she seemed much older than her thirteen years, while in others she was a mere child.
Her beautiful hair still hung in a shining mass over her shoulders, and she was simply dressed in a white frock with a broad blue sash about her waist. Her aunt believed in "dressing children as children," so that she seemed almost out of place among the very young-ladyfied girls who assembled at Mis. Loring's on this birthday afternoon.
After supper—for it was a tea party—Patsy's sister took her seat at the piano, and they all danced. All except Elizabeth. The mere idea of being asked to dance so terrified her that she fled up stairs to the little sitting-room, determined to stay there until the evening had worn away and some one should come to take her home.
She was overcome with disappointment. Even the pencil had not been the success that she had anticipated, for all the girls had brought presents to Patsy, and among them had been a pencil which she very much feared her friend might admire more than the one she had given, although Patsy had thrown her arms about Elizabeth's neck and declared hers to be the sweetest in the world.
"There are so many disappointing things," thought Elizabeth, at the age of the thirteen. "I wonder, if my father were to come home I should be disappointed about him!"
In the sitting-room she found a lady, who sat by the table, reading the evening paper. Elizabeth did not see at first who it was, for her face was hidden, but the lady looked up presently, and, to her surprise, it proved to be Mrs. Brown, who gave drawing and painting lessons at the school.
She was a very beautiful woman, and Elizabeth had always admired her in secret, and had longed more than ever to be allowed to take lessons of her. They had never exchanged a word, however, for Mrs. Brown was at the school merely during the hours of her lessons, and knew only those girls who were in her classes, but she recognized Elizabeth's face to-night, and smiled kindly at the little girl when she saw her.
"You are one of Miss Garner's pupils, are you not?" she said, with the lovely light in her eyes that won the heart of every girl to whom she spoke. "I think I have seen you there, although you are not in my class."
"No," said Elizabeth, "I am not in your class, though I do wish I could be. I love drawing."