Silvia trembled. She very much wanted something from around the world.
So she put her arm about Kathleen. "Oh, make up now," she said. "They"re coming," as Mr. and Mrs. Briggs advanced down the path. "Promise you won"t tell," she begged.
"Yes, do," said Polly Pepper imploringly.
So Kathleen promised, and everything became quite serene, just in time for Mr. and Mrs. Briggs to have the girls presented to them. And then they all jumped into the steam launch, and the men sent her into the lake, and everything was as merry as could be under the circ.u.mstances.
"I haven"t got to go to school to-morrow," announced Silvia when they were well off. "Isn"t that too fine for anything, girls?"
"Dear me! I should say so," cried Alexia enviously. "How I wish I could ever stay home! But aunt is so very dreadful, she makes me go every single day."
"Well, I"m going to stay home to bid Kathleen good-bye, you know," said Silvia.
"You see we are going around the world," announced Mrs. Briggs. She was just like Kathleen as far as mother and daughter could be, and she had more jingling things on, besides a long lace scarf that was catching in everything; and she carried a white, fluffy parasol in her hand. "And we"ve come to bid good-bye to our relatives before we start. Kathleen, you shouldn"t have come out on the water without your hat," for the first time noticing her daughter"s bare head.
"None of the girls have hats on," said Kathleen, shaking her long light braids.
"Well, I don"t see how their mothers can allow it," exclaimed Mrs.
Briggs, glancing around on the group, "but I sha"n"t let you, Kathleen.
Dear me! you will ruin your skin. Now you must come under my parasol."
She moved up on the seat. "Here, come over here."
"Oh, I"m not going to," cried Kathleen with a grimace. "I can"t see anything under that old thing. Besides, I"m going to stay with the girls."
"Yes, you must come under my parasol." A frown of real anxiety settled on her mother"s face. "You"ll thank me by and by for saving your complexion for you, Kathleen; so come over."
"No," said Kathleen, hanging back, and holding to Silvia"s arm.
"There"s your veil, you know." Mr. Briggs hadn"t spoken before, but now he edged up to his wife. "It"s in my pocket."
"So it is," cried his wife joyfully, as Mr. Briggs pulled out a long green tissue veil. "I am so glad I had you bring it. Now, Kathleen, tie this all over your head; your father will bring it over to you. And next time, do obey me, and wear your hat as I"ve always told you."
So Kathleen, not daring to hold back from this command, but grumbling at every bit of the process, tied on the veil, and then sat up very cross and stiff through the rest of the sail.
"I should rather never go around the world, if I"d got to be tied up like an old green mummy every step," Alexia managed to whisper in Polly"s ear as they hopped out of the launch. And she was very sweet to Kathleen after that, pitying her dreadfully.
VI THE ACCIDENT
"Oh dear me!" exclaimed Clem. They were all on the cars--the early train--going home; the governess, a middle-aged person who looked after the younger Horne children and who was going in to her sister"s to pa.s.s the night, taking care of the party. "Now I"ve got to sit up till all hours when I get home, to get my lessons."
Polly Pepper gave a comfortable little wriggle under her coat. "Isn"t it nice Mamsie makes me get my lessons the first thing, before I play!" she said to herself for about the fiftieth time.
"So have I," cried Lucy Bennett, echoing Clem"s words.
"Well, I can"t," cried Alexia with a flounce, "because my aunt won"t let me sit up after nine o"clock; that is, to study. So I have to get up early in the morning. Oh dear!" with a grimace at the thought.
"So do I," said Amy Garrett. "Dear me! and I"m just as sleepy in the morning as I can be."
Alexia yawned at the very memory of it. "Well, don"t let"s talk of it,"
she begged. "Seems as if Miss Salisbury"s eyes were all over me now."
"I have Miss Anstice to-morrow," said Amy, "and it"s the day for her black silk gown."
"Horrors!" exclaimed Alexia; and, "How do you know she"ll wear the black silk gown to-morrow, Amy?" from the other girls.
"Because she said Professor Mills from the Inst.i.tute is to be there to-morrow," said Amy. "He gives the art lecture to our cla.s.s. And you know the black silk gown will surely go on."
"There"s no help for you, you poor child," cried Alexia, exulting that she never would be gathered into Miss Anstice"s cla.s.s, and that she just hated art and all that sort of thing, despite the efforts of Miss Salisbury"s younger sister to get her interested. "Yes, that black silk gown will surely be there. Look out now, Amy; all you girls will catch it."
"Oh, I know it," said Amy with a sigh. "How I do wish I never"d got into that cla.s.s!"
"Well, you know I told you," said Alexia provokingly; "you"d much better have taken my advice and kept out of her clutches."
"I wish I had," mourned Amy again.
"How Miss Anstice can be so horrid--she isn"t a bit like Miss Salisbury," said Alexia. "I don"t see--"
"She isn"t horrid," began Polly.
"Oh Polly!"
"Well, not always," said Polly.
"Well, she is anyway when she has company, and gets on that black silk gown; just as stiff and cross and perky and horrid as can be."
"She wants you all to show off good," said Alexia. "Well, I"m glad enough I"m not in any of her old cla.s.ses. I just dote on Miss Salisbury."
"Oh Alexia, you worry the life out of her almost," said Sally.
"Can"t help it if I do," said Alexia sweetly. "I"m very fond of her. And as for Mademoiselle, she"s a dear. Oh, I love Mademoiselle, too."
"Well, she doesn"t love you," cried Clem viciously. "Dear me! fancy one of the teachers being fond of Alexia!"
"Oh, you needn"t laugh," said Alexia composedly as the girls giggled; "every single one of those teachers would feel dreadfully if I left that school. They would really, and cry their eyes out."
"And tear their hair, I suppose," said Clem scornfully.
"Yes, and tear their--why, what in this world are we stopping for?"
cried Alexia in one breath.
So everybody else wondered, as the train gradually slackened speed and came to a standstill. Everybody who was going in to town to the theatre or opera, began to look impatient at once.
"Oh dear!" cried the girls who were going to sit up to study, "now isn"t this just as hateful as it can be?"
"I don"t care," said Alexia, settling comfortably back, "because I can"t study much anyway, so I"d just as soon sit on this old train an hour."