"No," said Mildred, quietly, yet not without a flush on her cheeks. "It is mine. The—person I bought it of brought it here to me to-day."
THE GIRLS DISCOVER MILDRED'S PURCHASE.
"Yours!" exclaimed Jenny Martin, who had thrown one end of the silk over her shoulder. "Well, that is pretty good on five dollars a week!"
Mildred's face burned, but something in Jenny's rude words smote her conscience, and she tried to look good-humored, while Jenny admired herself a moment in the cracked glass, the other girls eying her as well as Mildred with some new respect.
Jenny tossed the silk from her shoulders with a little sniff, and Mildred felt glad enough to put it away, and eat a hasty lunch. She was doubly glad, when her working hours were over, to hurry home, carrying her new treasure, which she had resolved not to show her mother until the night of the party. But a surprise awaited her on her return to the cottage. Mrs. Lee had received an invitation from a cousin in Boston to spend a fortnight with his family, and she had already arranged with her few pupils to avail herself of this unlooked-for holiday.
All was excitement and preparation. Will, the second boy, was to go with his mother, and instead of tea on the cozy little table there were odds and ends of tapes, buttons, and threads, half-worn garments, and one or two new things, while Debby, the one servant, and Mrs. Lee were both stitching as if for a wager. They looked up with flushed faces to greet Milly.
"Oh, my dear," said the mother, after explaining matters, "do sit down and help; we are to be off to-morrow morning."
Milly saw she could not hope for a moment to sew on the new dress until after her mother and Will were gone, and so she entered with an earnest good-will into assisting them, and was genuinely pleased by their prospects of enjoyment. The next few days flew by. Once the children were safely in bed Mildred would draw forth her work, and so by dint of hard labor the dress was finished Monday evening. She made her toilet rather nervously when Tuesday night came. What between her hurry after getting home, and her anxiety to conceal her dress from Debby and her little sister Margaret, Mildred found it difficult to enjoy the "first wear" of the gray silk; but certainly, she thought, as she surveyed her work in her mirror, it was a success. It fitted admirably, and she had had the good taste to make it simply as became a young girl only sixteen, though it in no way became a girl working hard for twenty dollars a month. She took good care to envelop herself completely in a water-proof cloak before Debby and little Kate saw her, and thus equipped she started off under her brother Joe's escort for the big house in Lane Street.