"Are you going to take all those?"
"All those? Why, there aren"t so many, Mollie."
"Well, I like your idea of _many_, Betty. Why, you"ll need two trunks for those dresses. Oh, where did you get that pretty linen skirt, and it"s quite full, too; isn"t it?"
"Yes, they"re coming in that way again," and Betty draped the skirt in question over her hip, holding it up for Mollie to see. The two girls were in Betty Nelson"s room, and the Little Captain was packing a trunk.
At least that was the official name of the operation. To the uninitiated, or to "mere man," it looked as though nothing was being done except to scatter dresses on chairs, on the bed, divan and other vantage points.
"But I have to lay them all out this way," Betty had explained, when Mollie, running over in an interval of her own packing, to get ready to go to Ocean View, had gasped in wonder at the confusion in her friend"s room. "I want to see what I have, so I"ll know what to take with me."
"That isn"t my way," Mollie laughed. "I simply open a closet door, sweep everything off the hooks and toss them into a trunk. Then I get Felice to jump on the lid with me, and--presto! the trick is done, Madame!" and she laughed and shrugged her shoulders in pretty little French fashion.
"I simply can"t do it that way," sighed Betty. "I suppose it does take a long time to lay each dress out separately, but----"
"It is much more kind to the dresses," agreed Mollie. "That"s why you always look so nice, and why I always appear so--so----"
"Don"t you dare say a word about yourself, Mollie Billette!" protested Betty. "You always look so sweet. Why, you can take an old piece of cloth and a couple of faded flowers, and make of it a hat that looks prettier than one mamma pays Madame Rosenti twelve dollars for when I go with her. I don"t see how you manage to do it."
"It was born in me!" laughed the French girl, as with a quick motion she draped one of Betty"s garments about her shoulders, producing an effect at which Betty gasped in pleasure.
"Now, why doesn"t that ever look like that on _me_?" she demanded.
"Betty, you"re a dear!" replied Mollie, without answering. "Now I am keeping you. I must run back. I haven"t begun to pack yet, and I know Paul and Dodo will have my room in dreadful shape. They are probably, at this minute, parading around in my best frocks, playing soldier," and Mollie with a laughing kiss for her chum jumped up and fled from the room to hurry home and minimize the work of the playful twins.
"Don"t forget the time!" cried Betty, after her chum, leaning out of the window of her room, and breathing in deep of the balmy June air. "We leave a week from to-day."
"Oh, I won"t forget!" answered Mollie. "It is altogether too delightful for that."
Betty resumed her inspection of dresses, to determine which she should take, while Mollie hastened home. But Betty had not long been alone when the doorbell tinkled and Grace Ford was announced.
"Tell her to come right up, if she will," Betty directed the maid, and the tall, willowy one entered with a rush and a rustling of silken skirts.
"My!" gasped Betty, looking up from her position, kneeling amid a pile of clothes. "All dressed up and no place to go, Grace! What does it mean? No, thank you, no chocolates when I"m looking over my pretty things. I might spot them."
"That"s just what happened to me," sighed the Gibson girl. "I had to put on my best silk petticoat, as I spilled a lot of chocolate down my other. I sent it away to be cleaned, and that"s why I"m wearing my best one. Don"t you just love the swish of silk?"
"I guess we all do," answered Betty. "Oh, dear!"
"What"s the matter?" asked Grace. "Oh, but you are going at it wholesale; aren"t you?" as she surveyed the room overflowing with clothes.
"Have to, my dear. It means an all-summer stay, you know. And I don"t know what to take and what to leave. I"m sure to want the very things I don"t take."
"Take them all, then. That"s what I"m doing. Only I haven"t really begun yet. I just ran over to ask you something."
"Well, let it be something very easy, Grace dear. My brain isn"t capable of taking in very much this morning."
"It"s about Will," went on Grace, thoughtfully selecting a chocolate from a bag. "Are you sure you won"t have some?" she asked.
"What, of Will? No, thank you!"
"Silly, of course not. I mean this candy. It"s delicious! Just fresh and----"
"Cloying," interrupted Betty. "You haven"t a lime drop, have you?"
"Ugh! The horrid, sour things, no! But about Will. Did you know he had a secret Betty?"
"A secret? Mercy, no! Is it about some----"
"I don"t believe it"s a girl. If it is, Will acts the funniest of anyone I ever saw. He has a lot of books and papers he"s studying over."
"It might be her--letters--or--her picture that he puts in a book so no one will see----"
"It isn"t that!" declared Grace with conviction. "Oh, this is a nougat!"
she exclaimed in rapture, as her white teeth bit into a particularly delicious candy.
"Hopeless!" sighed Betty, folding a skirt neatly.
"I mean he hasn"t any girl"s picture, or anything like that," went on Grace. "I found one of the books where he had laid it down. It is some sort of Government report. I thought you might know."
"Why?" asked Betty, quickly. "I"m not in his confidence."
"I know, but you see, Will and Allen being so chummy, and Allen being so fond of you----"
"Grace Ford!" broke in Betty. "You shouldn"t say such things!" and she blushed crimson.
"Why not?" demanded Grace, coolly. "There"s no one here but us, and we know it. I thought perhaps Will had told Allen, and Allen might have hinted to you."
"Not a word, Grace, dear. I didn"t even know Will had a secret."
"Well, he has, and he won"t tell me. But I"ll find out. He"s up to something. I only hope he doesn"t run away again, or do something foolish."
"Will doesn"t mean anything," declared Betty. "He is just high-spirited; that"s all. What sort of a secret did it seem to be, if it wasn"t about--girls?" and Betty laughed.
"Oh, I"m sure it isn"t about girls," Grace went on, seriously enough.
"At least it isn"t any girl in our set, and Will doesn"t know any others. And if it is some one in our set, they"re all nice girls, so it won"t really matter--after we get used to it."
"Oh, dear!" laughed Betty. "You speak as though he were engaged!"
"Oh, I know he isn"t," declared Grace. "But he _is_ such a tease. But if you don"t know, you don"t, Betty. And now I must run back. Have any of the other members of the club been over?"
"Yes, Mollie was just here."
Grace fished out another chocolate, after shaking up the bag to see if there were any choice ones at the bottom, and then, after trying in vain to induce Betty to accept a sweet, took her departure, saying she was going to see to her own packing.
"Now it only needs a call from Amy to make the round of visits complete," murmured Betty, as she resumed the sorting of her garments.
But Amy did not come that morning.