The automobile girls were in a flutter of excitement. Another half hour,
and they would arrive in Newport!
"Ruth," said Miss Sallie, "slow up this car a little! Before we enter
Newport, I must see to my appearance. To think of all I have gone
through since I left Kingsbridge!" Miss Sallie took out a small hand
mirror, thoughtfully surveying her own unwrinkled face. "What will you
children get me into before we are through with this trip?"
Ruth slowed down obediently.
"Open my bag, Mollie," said Miss Sallie, decidedly, "and you, Grace,
look under the seat for my other hat. We shall probably arrive in
Newport at five o'clock, the hour for the fashionable parade. I, at
least, shall do what I can to give our car an appearance of gentility. I
advise you children to do the same."
"Would you like a little cold cream, Miss Sallie, to wipe off your
face?" Mollie spoke timidly, remembering how Barbara had laughed at her.
"Certainly I should, my child, and very intelligent of you to have
brought it along."
"Well," said Ruth, "if you must 'fix up,' and I am to take a party of
belles and beauties into Newport, instead of true lovers of sport, there
are lots of new veils under my seat. Bab, take them out and pass them
around. Only the chauffeur shall be dusty and dilapidated enough to look
the part."
Behold their dream had come true! The automobile girls were at last in
Newport, watching the summer parade!
Ruth, at the expected hour, turned her car, with a great flourish, into
Bellevue Avenue, Newport's most fashionable thoroughfare. For a few
minutes the girls beheld a long procession of carriages and automobiles;
a little later, they swung round a corner and stopped in front of a
beautiful old Colonial house, with a wide veranda running around three
sides of it, and a hospitably open front door.
Miss Sallie descended first, to be greeted by Ralph's mother, who was
expecting them.
"I don't like her. She's not a bit like Ralph," thought Barbara. Then
she gave herself an inward shake. "There, Barbara, you know what mother
would say to you about your sudden prejudices!"
Mrs. Ewing, who had been a great beauty in her day, looked as though
life had disagreed with her.
Barbara had wondered how a private home could accommodate so many
people, never having seen a handsome old New England house, but their
three rooms occupied only half of one side of the long hall on the
second floor. "And they think they are poor!" smiled Bab, to herself, as
she looked admiringly at the handsome furniture. "I wonder what they
would think of our little five-room cottage."
"I want some clean clothes before anything else," sighed dainty Mollie,
standing before a mirror, gazing with disdain at her own appearance. "I
believe I have one clean shirtwaist left, but I must still wear this
dusty old skirt."
But Ruth was staggering into the room under an immense box.
"Fifteen dollars express charges, mum; not a cent less! Them's my
orders. And extry for carrying the box upstairs. It ain't my business.
I'm too accommodating I am! Where shall I put it down, mum?"
Ruth dropped the heavy bundle on the bed; she couldn't carry it a moment
longer.
"Why, Ruth Stuart!" said Mollie, dancing with glee. "It's some clothes
for us! How did mother get them here in such a hurry? Oh, joy! oh,
rapture! I was just fussing about having to wear this old suit
to-night."
Bab was tugging at the heavy cords.
"Foolish Bab!" scoffed Ruth. "You'll never get it open that way," and
she cut the cord in a business-like fashion with a little knife she
always carried.
"Now I'll run away and leave you," Ruth continued. "Grace is calling
that it is time for my bath. Your turn next. I'll see the pretty things
when I come back."
Ruth would like to have stayed to see the girls open the box, but she
had an instinctive feeling that they would prefer to be alone.
"Here's a letter from mother. Let's read that first," said Bab.
Inside the letter lay two crisp ten-dollar bills!
"I have had a windfall, children," the letter read, "through the
kindness of Mr. Stuart. He told me that some of my old stock that I
thought of no value was paying a dividend again. Curiously, your Uncle
Ralph had not mentioned it to me; but, when I wrote and told him of Mr.
Stuart's advice, he sent it to me at once. So here's a little spending
money. And oh, my darlings, I hope you will like your new clothes! Mr.
Stuart is so kind to me, I am not lonely," the letter ended, "so have
the best time you possibly can. I shall send your trunk to-morrow with
your summer muslins and underwear."
"Mollie mine, don't tear the paper in that fashion," remonstrated
Barbara. "Let me open the box. Behold and see!" She held up two dainty
organdie frocks, delicate and airy. Mollie's gown was white, with little
butterfly medallions of embroidery and lace sprinkled over it.
"Mollie, Mollie! How could mother have guessed your new name was 'the
butterfly girl'? Isn't it too lovely!" Bab almost forgot to look at her
own frock, so enraptured was she with her sister's.
But Barbara's frock was just as charming, and as well suited to her. A
circle of pink wild roses outlined the hem and encircled the yoke, which
was of delicate pink tulle.
Mollie was rummaging with impatient fingers. "Party capes, I do
declare--the very newest style! I never reached the point of expecting
capes even in my wildest dreams. See, yours is all white, and mine has a
pale blue lining with a dear little 'blue riding hood cap.' Oh, won't I
be charming?" murmured Mollie, putting the cape over her shoulders and
pirouetting before the mirror. "Surely no sensible wolf would want to
eat me up!"
Two light flannel suits, one of cream color for Bab, and a pin-stripe of
blue and white for Mollie, completed the glories of the box.
"Now," said Bab, "what more can we want, for tennis, for rowing, for
yachting, for driving? Are there any more entertainments that the rich
enjoy, Mollie? Because, if there are, I should like to mention them."
Oh, the girls will all declare,
When they see me on the square--
Here comes a millionaire,
Mollie darling!
"What do you think of that for poetry made while you wait? You don't
half appreciate my talents, Miss Mollie Thurston," ended Bab, with a
final hug.
"Hurry, children," called Miss Sallie, appearing at their door. "You
know we are to meet Mrs. Cartwright at the Casino to-night. She wants to
introduce us to the place where a large part of Newport's gayety
occurs."
"What is the 'Casino'?" whispered Mollie, when Miss Sallie had
disappeared.
"Oh, it's only a big club, where you play tennis and have dances, and
any sort of entertainments. Nearly all the nicest people in Newport
belong to it. Mrs. Cartwright says we'll have most of our fun over
there."
Bab put her arm round her sister, as they walked downstairs.
"Mollie," she said, "I have the queerest feeling. I am so happy, it
frightens me. I never had such a good time before. I wonder how it will
all turn out?"
Barbara could not guess that there were to be tears for her, as well as
joys, at Newport. It was as well she did not know, or her pleasure would
have been marred.
The girls finished dinner as quickly as possible.
"There's time for a stroll on the cliffs, isn't there, before eight?"
inquired Ruth. "Do you feel equal to exercise, Aunt Sallie? Everyone
takes the cliff walk the first thing after arrival in Newport."
"Certainly," Miss Sallie agreed. "I suppose I can manage it, though I
have ridden so far that I may have lost the use of my limbs. However, I
can sit down if I grow tired, and you children can go on without me.
It's perfectly safe, isn't it, Mrs. Ewing?"
"Oh, yes," Mrs. Ewing replied; "though it looks fairly dangerous, the
cliffs are so high, the highest on the Atlantic Coast from Cape Ann to
Yucatan. But very few accidents have occurred there--so far."
Ruth and Barbara led the way. They could hear the sea booming and
pounding below them. From the edge of the cliff they looked down a
hundred feet at the sea, washing in on the level stretch of beach.
Ruth shivered and turned pale. "Oh," she shuddered, "it makes me
horribly nervous! I am ashamed of it, so I don't often mention it, but I
simply can't look down from great heights. It even makes me a little
sick to look out of a high window, and I'm a miserable climber, I get so
dizzy. Let us go back. Do you mind, Bab?"
"No, Ruth," Bab answered. "I suppose I am a tomboy; I used to play hare
and hounds with the boys at school, and I learned to climb like a goat
over the rocks at Kingsbridge; but these Newport cliffs are a different
matter."
Barbara's powers were to be tested, but neither she nor Ruth thought
anything more of their talk. Miss Sallie and the other two girls had
joined them, and they made their way along the narrow, winding path that
dipped in hollows and curves, and stretched for two miles ahead of them.
"How hard it is," said Miss Sallie, "to tell which view is the more
beautiful!"
On the inland side of the cliffs, beautiful, shaded lawns, luxuriant
with flowers, ran down to the edge of the path. Set in their midst were
the marble palaces of Newport's millionaires. Toward the sea, great
points of land jutted out into the harbor, where the water was violet
with the shadows of the closing day.
"Miss Stuart! Miss Stuart!" Aunt Sallie heard a gay voice calling her.
Running across the lawn, and waving her scarf at them, came Mrs.
Cartwright.
"Were you coming to see me first?" she asked.
Miss Stuart confessed that she had not the shadow of an idea which house
belonged to Mrs. Cartwright.
"You must see it for a minute, since you are already here," urged Mrs.
Cartwright, and led the way up the graveled path to her veranda.
"Mollie," she said, addressing the young girl, "I think it is peculiarly
appropriate for my butterfly girl to be introduced to my piazza. It is
made to look like a Japanese teahouse," she explained to Miss Sallie.
The sides of Mrs. Cartwright's veranda were of heavy Japanese paper
stretched on bamboo poles which opened and closed at will. The paper had
been painted by a famous Japanese artist to represent springtime in
Japan. There were whole rows of cherry trees in full blossom, with
little Japanese children playing beneath them. Opposite this scene was
another painting--a marshy lake, surrounded by queer Japanese birds.
The veranda was lighted by a hundred tiny shaded lamps. Japanese matting
covered the floor, while the tea tables were set with tea services
bought in old Japan. The girls had never seen anything so lovely.
"You are officially invited to have tea with me here, any or every
afternoon you are in Newport. Now I will run and get Mr. Cartwright,"
added their hostess, "and we will go over to the Casino."
Outside, the Casino looked like a rambling, old Dutch mansion, with
peaked gables and overhanging eaves.
"We've a Dutch house, English lawns and a French chef," Mr. Cartwright
laughingly explained to Miss Sallie as they entered.
"And we've dozens of tennis courts," added Mrs. Cartwright. "We are
working dreadfully hard, now, for the tournament that is to take place
in a few weeks. It is really the social event of the whole year at
Newport. Is there a star player among you girls? Why not enter the
tournament and compete for the championship? We are to have a special
match game, this year, played by the young people. Let us keep these
tennis courts busy for a while. You'll come over, too, Miss Stuart,
won't you, and play bridge while we work. Or you'll work at bridge,
while we play tennis. Perhaps you think that is the way I should have
put it."