"I"ll tell you, girls," said Mrs. White. "Squire Travers is going to call here this evening by appointment. And if you are both very, very good little girls, perhaps I will have some very important news to give you in the morning."
At this both Tavia and Dorothy "took steps," Tavia doing some original dance while Dorothy was content to join in the swing that her partner so violently insisted upon taking at every turn.
Mrs. White laughed merrily at seeing the girls dance there in the honeysuckle-lined porch, and she was now more positive than ever that their companionship should not be broken.
"All hands around!" called Tavia, at which invitation the stately society lady could not refrain from joining in the dance herself, and she went around and around until it was Dorothy who first had to give in and beg to be let out of the ring.
"Oh!" sighed Mrs. White, quite exhausted, "that is the best real dance I have had in years--quite like our dear old German."
"They call it the Virginia Reel in Dalton," said Tavia, not meaning to deprecate the value of the society dance mentioned.
"Yes, and that is the correct name, too," agreed Mrs. White, "for almost all the good figures of the German were taken from the old time country dance. But I am warm! I must go in at once or I may check this perspiration too quickly. Dorothy, don"t walk too far with Tavia," she remarked, as both girls prepared to leave the porch, "I have some little things to talk over before tea."
"Only to the turn," replied Dorothy, with her arm wound lovingly around Tavia, "I just want to finish about something very important."
"She must go with Dorothy," said Mrs. White to herself, watching the two girls make their way through the soft autumn twilight.
CHAPTER IX
COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS
"Isn"t it too delicious," exclaimed Tavia, excitedly.
"Delightful," answered Dorothy. "I hope hereafter you will never doubt the goodness of your fairy G.o.dmother."
"Or that of my fairy G.o.dsister," added Tavia.
"And Aunt Winnie is to do all your shopping. Your mother asked her to get everything you will need. The money you received from the railroad company for the loss of your hair in the accident has been put aside by your father for your education. So you cannot longer boast of that romantic poverty you have been holding over my poor, innocent head,"
and Dorothy gave her friend a "knowing squeeze," that kind of embrace that only girl friends understand fully.
"I can scarcely realize it," pondered Tavia, "not to have you leave me here all alone! Why, Doro, I could not sleep nights, worrying about what would become of me in this hamlet without you."
"And I was equally tortured with worries about what would become of me, when I could not tell you all my troubles. Especially when I thought of having to--"
"Fight the Green Violet alone! I don"t blame you. But I am just dying to know what use she will make of the muskmelon story. I met Alice yesterday and she felt dreadfully about the way Viola acted. She is coming over to apologize to you as soon as she can do so without carting the vegetable along. Pity they did not name her cuc.u.mber instead of violet--the green would match her better. I am going to call her "Cuke" hereafter! Short for cuc.u.mber, you know."
"Oh, that would be unkind," objected Dorothy.
"Unkind nothing," replied the impulsive one. "I wish I could think of a good rhyme for her new name. I would pa.s.s it around--"
"Now, Tavia, you must not keep me worrying about the mischievous things you intend to do at Glenwood. Remember that is one of the stipulations--you are to be very, very good."
"I feel a sore spot under my shoulder blade now," declared Tavia, putting her hand back. "Wings as sure as you live, just feel!"
"But do you realize it, we have only this week? We must be in Glenwood next Monday."
"All the better. I cannot wait. Won"t it be too gloriotious?" and Tavia again indulged in "steps," her favorite outlet for pent-up sentiment.
"The boys are coming over to-morrow afternoon," announced Dorothy, "I had a note from Ned this morning."
"Goody," exclaimed Tavia, coming to a full stop with a twirl that stood for the pedal period. "Another ride?"
"No, I"m afraid not. Ned said he and Nat were going to spend the afternoon with us."
"Well, it will be fun anyway. It always is when the boys get jollying.
I am afraid I do love boys--next to you, Doro, I think a real nice boy is the very nicest human possible."
"Next to me? On the other side you mean?"
"No, on the second side, the boy is on the outside of the argument.
You are always first, Doro."
Meanwhile the news, that Dorothy and Tavia were to leave Dalton for a school in New England, had spread among their former school companions.
Alice MacAllister, Sarah Ford, May Egner and a number of others had held a little consultation over the matter and decided that some sort of testimonial should be arranged to give their friends a parting acknowledgment of the regard and esteem in which Dalton school girls held Tavia Travers and Dorothy Dale. Of course Tavia was never as popular as Dorothy had always been--she was too antagonistic, and insisted upon having too much fun at the expense of others. But, now that she was leaving them, the girls admitted she had been a "jolly good fellow," and they would surely miss her mischief if nothing more.
May Egner wanted the committee of arrangements to make the affair a "Linen Shower" such as brides are given.
"Because," argued the practical May, "it will be so nice to have a lovely lot of handkerchiefs and collars. No one can have too many."
"Well, we can include the shower if you like," said Alice, who was chairman, "but I vote for a lawn party, with boys invited."
"A lawn party with boys!" chorused the majority, in enthusiastic approval.
"I think it would be a charity to let the Dalton boys come to something," declared Sarah Ford. "If we leave them out all the time, by and by, when we want someone to take us home on a dark night--"
"When you stay chinning too long with Roberta," interrupted a girl who knew Sarah"s weakness for "dragging along the way."
"Well, you may be out in the dark some time yourself, Nettie, and it is very nice to have--"
"A very nice boy--"
"Order! Order!" called the chairman. "We have voted to invite them and--"
"It"s up to them," persisted Nettie Niles, who, next to Tavia Travers, had the reputation and privilege of using more slang than any other well-bred girl in Dalton.
"It is to be a lawn party then," declared the chairman, with befitting dignity. "And we have only one day to arrange the whole thing."
"I"ll collect the boys," volunteered the irrepressible Nettie.
"Then you are appointed a committee of one to invite all the nice boys in the first cla.s.s," said Alice, much to the surprise of the joker.
"And not any other?" pouted Nettie. "If I should run across a real nice little fellow, with light curly hair, and pale pink cheeks, and--and--"
"New tennis suit," suggested someone, who had seen Nettie walking home with a boy of the tennis-suit description.
"Oh, yes," agreed the chairman, "I forgot to include Charlie. He is not now at Dalton school, but of course, Nettie, you may invite Charlie."