Forrest looked the invitations over, smiling to himself, took out two unaddressed envelopes and put them into his pocket, closed the door and strolled away. In his own room he took them out again, and wrote upon them in his best hand, "Peter Bell, Esq.," and "Miss Jane Bell," adding the street and number, and stamping and sealing them, still with the laugh in the corners of his mischievous mouth.
The next day, when Olive"s invitations went into the letter-box on the corner, they were shortly followed by two of which the giver of the party had no knowledge.
It happened that the early morning mail in Gay Street always arrived just before the departure of the family workers for their place of business. So when Nancy, after answering the postman"s ring, came back to the table with the mail, both Peter and Jane, just finishing breakfast, were on hand to receive it.
"Whose handwriting can this be, I wonder?" speculated Jane, intently studying the dashing address.
Peter glanced over her shoulder. "Same as mine," he observed, ripping his envelope open. "Looks like a wedding invitation; but since none of our friends, Janey, are so much as thinking of getting married-- h.e.l.lo, what"s this?"
"Oh, why--" Jane was stammering, eagerly. "O Petey--how lovely--why-- There, I knew she was n"t as cold and proud as you thought her!"
"Who--what?" demanded Nancy, with excitement.
"Miss Olive Townsend," explained Jane, flushing with pleasure.
"What! Miss Worthington Square invited you two every-day folks to her party?" Ross inquired, getting up from the table and reaching for his hat. "Pete, you "ll lose your car if you stand mooning over that thing."
"How did you know she was to have a party?"
"Little Miss Shirley confided it to me."
"Me, too!" cried Nancy, proudly. "But she did n"t tell me her sister would ask you."
"Miss Olive probably didn"t intend to," hazarded Peter, folding up his note and putting it carefully in his pocket, "until she came to call and saw our charms. She came--she saw--we conquered--eh, Janey?--with our sweet smiles and our stories. How about it, sister? Do we go?"
"If," began Jane slowly, the smile fading a little on her bright face, "if----"
"If we"ve anything to wear!" supplied Ross, and began to whistle gaily.
"_Oh, ye shall walk in silk attire_," breaking off to glance at the clock and start hastily for the door, with Peter and Rufus after him.
Jane turned to Mrs. Bell, who, sitting quietly in her place at the head of the table, was regarding her young daughter as if she understood all the doubts which had instantly risen in the girl"s mind.
"I think we can manage it, dear," she said, "if the party dress does n"t have to match the invitation."
Jane"s face grew flushed again. "I can wear anything, mother, if I have some fresh ribbons. But Peter----"
"Yes--Peter--" agreed Mrs. Bell. She rose and came round to Jane.
"Peter shall have a new cravat," said she, and smiled into Jane"s eyes.
Jane smiled back. Each knew that the other was thinking of Peter"s best black suit--in which he went to church on Sundays. Each knew that the Townsend sons would wear evening clothes.
"Yes, with a new cravat Petey will be all right," said Jane. "Dear boy, he was pleased, was n"t he? And it _is_ nice of her to ask us!"
CHAPTER V
WITHOUT GLOVES
"O Jane, the big porch is all shut in with white stuff, and there"s a striped awning where the carriages stop, just as if it was a great grown-up party or a wedding. And I saw them carrying in loads of palms and things. Oh, are n"t you excited to be going?"
This was Nancy Bell, flying into the front room upstairs, where Mrs.
Bell and Jane were putting the finishing touches to Jane"s frock, to be worn that evening.
"Awfully excited, darling," admitted Jane, smiling at the eager little sister.
"Oh, how pretty that is!" Nancy clasped her hands in ecstasy over the dainty ruffled skirt, with its tiny yellow flowers scattered over a white ground. Then she caught up the long sash belt of primrose-yellow ribbon, its graceful rosettes and flowing ends promising an effective finish to the simple toilet. "You "ll be the prettiest girl at the party!" she declared, joyously.
Mrs. Bell and Jane laughed across at each other. "In a ten-cent dimity," their eyes said, with congratulations, "reduced from eighteen!"
"My ribbon is what rejoices my soul," said Jane, touching the soft silk.
"That was a bargain we just happened on--the price cut in two because of a few soiled places. We simply did n"t use those at all, and there were enough long lengths to make the streamers. It"s such a beautiful quality it makes the whole dress look finer than it is."
"How can you ever wait till evening?" sighed Nancy. "O Jane, Shirley wants me to hide in the shrubbery over there by the hedge, and she"s going to slip out with some ice-cream and cake for me!"
Mrs. Bell"s eyes and Jane"s met again with a smile. Jane"s eyebrows went up in interrogation. Mrs. Bell nodded. "I think Nancy may have that much of the party," she said.
Evening came at last, although Nancy had moments of feeling sure that it never would. Jane, her curly auburn locks tied up in charming fashion, with various rebellious tendrils waving about her face, slipped into the pretty frock, and Mrs. Bell arranged the primrose girdle, which set off the whole effect. Peter, in his best black suit and wearing the new cravat, looked at his sister approvingly.
"My, but I "m proud of my girl!" he said.
"Not prouder than I am of my big brother," responded Jane.
The family saw them off, rejoicing in their youthful good looks, and sure they would hold their own in appearance with anybody in Worthington Square. Peter and Jane, not feeling quite so confident, yet experiencing a pleasant stir of antic.i.p.ation, walked slowly round the corner.
Nearly all the guests were arriving in carriages, and the brother and sister, as they crossed the porch, encountered a number of these, entering from the _porte-cochere_. As Jane"s eyes fell upon the gaily dressed young people, the first thing she observed about them gave her an unpleasant shock. They all, youths and girls, were wearing gloves.
Jane glanced from her own round white arms, bare from the elbows, to Peter"s uncovered hands.
"Peter, we never once thought of gloves," she murmured in his ear, as they lingered to let the party from the carriages go in at the door ahead of them.
Peter stared from her to the other guests. Then his gay twinkle replaced the look of dismay. "Gloves--on youngsters like us! Don"t you care a bit," he whispered back in her ear.
It was a little difficult not to care, especially for Jane, as in the dressing-room upstairs she met many curious glances. The maid in charge even offered to help her put on her gloves, and Jane could not help feeling a bit unhappy as she replied that she was not wearing gloves.
But the sight of Peter, smiling serenely at her from the head of the staircase, where he awaited her, strengthened her resolution not to mind. A glance at the mirror had a.s.sured her that the inexpensive little dimity with its primrose ribbons was irreproachable in its dainty distinction of style--thanks to Mrs. Bell"s clever fingers--and this knowledge was very comforting. Her face was as bright as ever when she joined Peter, whose hearty whisper: "You "re all right!" put her quite on her feet again.
Downstairs, where Olive Townsend stood receiving with her mother, with Forrest and Murray close at hand, a brief but interesting colloquy took place just before Jane and Peter came into the reception room. Forrest had been keeping sharp watch on the hall entrance, and the moment that he saw the two Bells arrive and make their way toward the staircase, he watched for a chance to get a word in the ears of his family. A lull in the arrivals gave him his opportunity.
"Olive," he said coolly to his sister in an undertone, "I took the liberty of sending Jane and Peter Bell an invitation--and they "re here.
I want you to brace up and give them just as nice a welcome as you "re giving the rest. Hold on! If you "re angry at anybody, it"s at me, and you "ve no right to take it out of them for that. One thing I can tell you; if you are frosty to them you "ll settle with me afterward."
He had his sister in a corner--so to speak. Olive cared very much for appearances. There were many eyes upon her; she could make no angry response or show chagrin in any way without attracting notice and comment. All she could do--which she promptly did--was to whisper back, with lips which smiled for the sake of those who looked at her:
"You wretch, I "ll pay you off--never fear!"
"Do; I don"t mind," and Forrest approached his mother. He was her favourite son, and she was a thorough woman of the world. He had reckoned on her making the best of the situation; and when he had told her, with a gay glance and a furtive squeeze of her hand, he received no more severe threat of punishment than he had expected in her light: "You naughty boy! You "ll have to take care of them; n.o.body else knows them, or will care to."