"Give them to me. No, you can"t see the card. You don"t deserve to.
You"re too cross, and besides you wouldn"t like it. Do my two top hooks.
Now, am I perfectly beautiful?"
Under her capable hands a pretty miracle had been going on, common enough, but always new. Ruffle above ruffle, the soft, shapeless ma.s.s of white had shaken itself into its proper lines and contours, lightly, like a bird"s plumage settling itself, and with it the change that comes when a woman with the inborn, unteachable trick of wearing clothes puts on a perfect gown, had come to her slight girl"s figure. It looked softer, rounder, and more lightly poised. Her throat looked whiter above the encircling folds of white. Her shy half smile was sweeter. The white violets, caught to her high girdle, were sweeter, too.
Norah surrendered, her voice husky and reluctant.
"You"re too good for them."
"For the G. H. S. dance? For Willard?" Judith pretended great humility: "Nana!"
"There"s others you"re more than too good for. Others----"
"Nana, don"t."
"Come here." Norah put two heavy hands on her shoulders and regarded her grimly. It was the kind of look that Judith used to a.s.sociate with second sight, and dread. It was quite formidable still. But Judith met it steadily, with something mature and a.s.sured about her look that had nothing to do with the softness and sweetness of her in her fluffy draperies, something that had no place in the heart of a child; something that Norah saw.
"Too good for them, and you know it," p.r.o.nounced Norah. "You know it too well. You know too many things. A heart of gold you"ve got, but your head will rule your heart."
"Nonsense." Norah permitted herself to be kissed, still looking forbidding, but holding Judith tight.
"Little white lamb, may you find what"s good enough for you," she conceded, unexpectedly, "and may you know it when you find it."
"You"re an old dear, and you"re good enough for me."
Downstairs there was a more critical audience to face. Judith saw it in the library door, and stood still on the stair landing, looking down.
She held her head high, and coloured faintly. She looked very slender and white against the dark woodwork of the hall. The Randall house had been renovated the year before--becoming ten years older in the process, early Colonial instead of a comfortable mixture of late Colonial and mid-Victorian. The hall was particularly Colonial, and a becoming background for Judith, but the dark-haired lady in the door had no more faith in compliments than Norah, and there was a worried wrinkle in her low forehead to-night, as if her mind were on other things.
"Will I do, mother?"
"It"s a good little gown, but there"s something wrong with the neck line. You"re really going then?"
"I thought I would."
"Be back by half-past ten. We"re going to have some cards here. The Colonel likes you to pa.s.s things."
"I thought father"s head ached."
"He"s sleeping it off."
"I--wanted him to see how I looked."
"I can"t see why you go."
"I thought I would. I"ll go outside now, and wait for Willard."
Judith closed the early Colonial door softly behind her, and settled down on the steps. She arranged her coat, not the one her mother lent her for state occasions, but a white polo coat of her own, with due regard for her ruffles and her violets. The violets were from Colonel Everard. Norah, with her tiresome prejudice against the Everards, and mother, who thought and talked so much about them that she was almost tiresome, too, were both wrong about this party. She did want to go.
The church clock was striking nine. There was nothing deep toned or solemn about the chime; it was rather tinny, but she liked it. It sounded wide awake, as if things were going to happen. Nine, and the party was under way. The concert was almost over. The concert was only for chaperones and girls who were afraid of not getting their dance orders filled. The truly elect arrived just in time to dance. Some of them were pa.s.sing the house already. Judith saw girls with light-coloured gowns showing under dark coats, and swathing veils that preserved elaborate coiffures. Bits of conversation, monosyllabic and formal, to fit the clothes, drifted across the lawn to her.
She had not been allowed to help decorate the hall, but she had driven with Willard to Nashes" Corners for goldenrod, and when they carried it in, big, glowing bundles of it, she had seen fascinating things: j.a.panese lanterns, cheesecloth in yellow and white, the school colours, still in the piece, and full of unguessable possibilities, and a rough board table, the foundation of the elaborately decorated counter where Rena and other girls would serve the fruit punch. All the time she dressed she had been listening for the music of Dugan"s orchestra, and caught only tantalizing strains of tunes that she could not identify.
There was a sameness about the repertoire. Most of the tunes sounded unduly sentimental and resigned. But now they were playing their star number, a dramatic piece of program music called "A Day on the Battlefield."
The day began with bird notes and bugle calls, but was soon enlivened by cavalry charges and cannonades. The drum, and an occasional blank cartridge, very telling in effect, were producing them now. Judith listened eagerly.
She needed friends of her own age for the next two years, but she must not identify herself with them too closely, because she would have wider social opportunities by and by; that was what her mother said, and she did not contest it; by and by, but this party was to-night.
Willard was coming for her now, half an hour ahead of time, as usual. He crossed the lawn, and sat heavily down on the steps.
"h.e.l.lo. Don"t talk," said Judith.
Willard was silent only long enough to turn this remark over in his mind, and decide that she could not mean it, but that was five minutes, for all his mental processes were slow. Down in the hall the last of the heroes was dying, and Dugan"s orchestra rendered Taps sepulchrally.
Judith drew a long breath of shivering content.
"Cold?" inquired Willard.
"No."
"You"re looking great to-night."
"In the dark? In an old polo coat?"
"You always look great."
Judith was aware of an ominous stir beside her, and changed her position.
"Oh, Judy."
"When you know I won"t let you hold my hand, what makes you try?"
"If I didn"t try, how would I know?" said Willard neatly.
"Oh, if you don"t know without trying," Judith sighed. The cannonade in the hall was over, and the night was empty without it.
"They took in thirteen dollars and fifty-two cents selling tickets for to-night." Willard, checked upon sentimental subjects, proceeded to facts. He had so many at command that he could not be checked.
"Who did?"
"The team. They divide it. Only this year they"ve got to let the sub-team in on it, the faculty made them, and they"re sore. And there"s a sub on the reception committee."
"I don"t care."
"You ought to. A sub, and a roughneck. The sub-team is a bunch of roughnecks, but he"s the worst. On the reception committee! But they"ll take it out of him."
"Who? The reception committee?"
"No, the girls. They won"t dance with him. He won"t get a decent name on his card. Roughneck, keeping Ed off the team. He"s an Irish boy."