MOLLIE'S TEMPTATION
The next morning the "Automobile Girls" were sitting in the library of
Mr. Hamlin's home. Ruth, Mollie and Grace were there, for Peter and Bab
had secured their release from the Alexandria jail.
"But how do you think he ever accomplished it?" Mollie inquired.
Harriet laughed and flushed. "Oh, Peter accomplished it in the same way
he does everything else--by making friends with people," she declared.
"Girls, I hope you realize how ashamed I am of last night's proceedings.
I never dreamed that anything had happened to you, or I should have
certainly forced Charlie Meyers to turn back. But I think I have learned
a lesson. Charlie Meyers was horribly rude to you, Bab, and I told him
what we thought of him after you left. I don't want to see him again. So
Father, at least, will be glad. Though how I am to get on in this world
without a husband with money, I don't know." And Harriet sighed.
"Still I would like to have my questions answered," Mollie repeated. "How
did Peter Dillon get us away from that wretched jail in such a short
time when we thought we might have to stay there all night?"
"Why, he just found the justice of the peace, arranged about Ruth's fine,
mentioned Mr. Hamlin's name and did a few more things," Bab laughed. "So,
at last, you were permitted to come home."
"Poor Hugh and Elmer were so mortified at not having enough money with
them to pay the fine. It was just an accident. Yet it was truly my
fault," Ruth argued. "Father has always insisted that I take my
pocket-book whenever I go out of the house. But, of course, I forgot it
yesterday."
"Will Uncle Robert be very angry with you, Ruth, for being arrested?"
Harriet asked. "He need never find out anything about it. Your fine
wasn't so very large, and you always have money enough to pay for
anything."
Ruth laughed. "Oh, I always tell Father every thing! I don't think
he will be very angry with me, when he hears how we happened to get
into trouble."
"Do you really tell your father everything?" Harriet asked, in a
surprised tone.
"Why, yes; why not?" Ruth questioned.
Harriet shook her head. "Well, I do not tell my father all my affairs.
Oh, dear me, no!"
"I suppose I shall have to go back to Alexandria to-day, and appear at
court," Ruth lamented. "I just dread it."
"Oh, no you won't," Bab explained. "Mr. Dillon said he would talk matters
over with Mr. Hamlin, and that he had some influential friends over
there. You will have to pay your fine, Ruth, but you probably will not
have to appear at the trial. They will settle it privately."
"Girls," exclaimed Harriet, "I forgot to tell you something. There is a
big reception at the White House to-morrow evening, and Father says he
wishes to take the 'Automobile Girls' to present them to the President."
"How exciting!" exclaimed Grace Carter. "To think that the 'Automobile
Girls' are going to meet the President, and yet you speak of it as
calmly, Harriet Hamlin, as though it were an everyday affair."
"Oh, nonsense, Grace," Harriet begged. "It will be fun to go to the
White House with you. You girls are so interested in everything. But a
White House reception is an old story to me, and I am afraid there will
be a frightful crowd. But which one of you will go shopping with me
this morning?"
"I will," cried Mollie. "I'd dearly love to see the shops. We don't have
any big stores in Kingsbridge."
"Is there anything I can get for you, girls?" Harriet asked.
Ruth called her cousin over in the corner. "Will you please order flowers
for us to-morrow night!" Ruth requested. "Father told me to be sure to
get flowers whenever we wanted them."
"Lucky Ruth!" sighed Harriet. "I wish I had such a rich and generous
father as you have!"
"What can we wear to the President's reception to-morrow, Bab?" Mollie
whispered in her sister's ear, while Harriet and Ruth were having their
conference.
Bab thought for a moment. "You can wear the corn-colored frock you wore
to dinner with the Princess Sophia at Palm Beach. It is awfully pretty,
and you have never worn it since."
"That old thing!" cried Mollie, pouting.
"Suppose you get some pale yellow ribbons, Mollie, and I will make you a
new sash and a bow for your hair," Bab suggested.
Pretty Mollie frowned. "All right," she agreed.
Harriet and Mollie did not go at once to the shops. They drove first to
Harriet's dressmaker, the most fashionable in Washington.
"I must try on a little frock," Harriet explained. "We can do our
shopping afterwards. I want you to see a beautiful coat I am having made,
from a Chinese crepe shawl the Chinese Minister's wife gave me."
Madame Louise, the head of the dressmaking establishment, came in to
attend to Harriet. The new coat was in a wonderful shade of apricot,
lined with satin and embroidered in nearly every color of silk.
"Oh, Harriet, how lovely!" Mollie exclaimed.
"Yes, isn't it?" Harriet agreed. "But I really ought not to have had this
coat made up. It has cost almost as much as though I had bought it
outright. And I don't need it. I hope you have not made my dress very
expensive, Madame. I told you to get me up a simple frock."
"Ah, but Miss Hamlin, the simple frocks cost as much as the fancy ones,"
argued the dressmaker. "This little gown is made of the best satin and
lace. But how charming is the effect."
Mollie echoed the dressmaker's verdict as she gazed at Harriet with
admiring eyes. Harriet's gown was white satin. Her black hair and great
dusky eyes looked darker from the contrast and her skin even more
startlingly fair.
Harriet could not help a little smile of vanity as she saw herself in the
long mirror in the fitting room.
"Be sure to send these things home by to-morrow, Madame Louise," she
demanded. "Father and I are going to take our guests to one of the
President's receptions and I want to wear this gown."
Mollie gave a little impatient sigh.
"What is the matter, Mollie?" inquired Harriet, seeing that her little
friend looked tired and unhappy. "I am awfully sorry to have kept you
waiting like this. It is a bore to watch other people try on their
clothes. I will come with you directly."
"Oh, I am not tired watching you, Harriet," pretty Mollie answered
truthfully. "I was only wishing I had such a beautiful frock to wear to
the reception to-morrow."
Madame Louise clapped her hands. "Wait a minute, young ladies. I have
something to show you. You must wait, for it is most beautiful." The
dressmaker turned and whispered to one of her girl assistants. The girl
went out and came back in a few minutes with another frock over her arm.
Mollie gave a deep sigh of admiration.
"How exquisite!" Harriet exclaimed. "Whose dress is that, Madame? It
looks like clouds or sea foam, or anything else that is delicately
beautiful."
Madame shook out a delicate pale blue silk, covered with an even lighter
tint of blue chiffon, which shaded gently into white.
"This dress was an order, Miss Hamlin," Madame Louise explained. "I sent
to Paris for it. Of course it was some time before it arrived in
Washington. In the meanwhile a death occurred in the family of the young
woman who had ordered the dress. She is now in mourning, and she left the
dress with me to sell for her. She is willing to let it go at a great
bargain. The little frock would just about fit your young friend. Would
she not be beautiful in it, with her pale yellow hair and her blue eyes?
Ah, the frock looks as though it had been created for her! Do you think
she would allow me to try it on her?"
"Do slip the frock on, Mollie," Harriet urged. "It will not take much
time. And I would dearly love to see you in such a gown. It is the
sweetest thing I ever saw."
Mollie shook her head. "It is not worth while for me to put it on,
Harriet. Madame must understand that I cannot possibly buy it."
"But the frock is such a bargain, Mademoiselle," the dressmaker
continued. "I will sell it to you for a mere song."
"But I haven't the song to pay for it, Madame," Mollie laughed. "Come on,
Harriet. We must be going."
"Of course you can't buy the dress, Mollie," Harriet interposed. "But
Madame will not mind your just slipping into it. Try it on, just for my
sake. I know you will look like a perfect dream."
Mollie could not refuse Harriet's request.
"Shut your eyes, Mollie, while Madame dresses you up," Harriet proposed.
Mollie shut her eyes tightly.
Madame Louise slipped on the gown. "It fits to perfection," she whispered
to Harriet. Then the dressmaker, who was really an artist in her line,
picked up Mollie's bunch of soft yellow curls and knotted them carelessly
on top of Mollie's dainty head. She twisted a piece of the pale blue
shaded chiffon into a bandeau around her gold hair.
"Now, look at yourself, Mademoiselle," she cried in triumph.
"Mollie, Mollie, you are the prettiest thing in the world!" Harriet
exclaimed.
Mollie gave a little gasp of astonishment when she beheld herself in the
mirror. Certainly she looked like Cinderella after the latter had been
touched with the fairy wand. She stood regarding herself with wide open
eyes of astonishment, and cheeks in which the rose flush deepened.
"The dress must belong to Mademoiselle! I could not have made such a fit
if I had tried," repeated the dressmaker.
"How much is the dress worth, Madame?" Harriet queried.
"Worth? It is worth one hundred and fifty dollars! But I will give the
little frock away for fifty," the dressmaker answered.
"Can't you possibly buy it, child?" Harriet pleaded with Mollie. "It is a
perfectly wonderful bargain, and you are too lovely in it. I just can't
bear to have you refuse it."
"I am sorry, Harriet," Mollie returned firmly. "But I have not the money.
Won't you please take the gown off me, Madame!"
"Your friend can take the frock from me now and pay me later. It does not
matter," said the dressmaker. "She can write home for the money."
For one foolish moment Mollie did dream that she might write to her
mother for the price of this darling blue frock. Mollie was sure she had
never desired anything so keenly in her life. But in a moment Mollie came
to her senses. Where would her mother get such a large sum of money to
send her? It had been hard work for Mrs. Thurston to allow Barbara and
Mollie the slight expenses of their trip to Washington. No; the pretty
gown was impossible!
"Do unbutton the gown for me, please, Harriet," Mollie entreated. "I
really can't buy it." Mollie felt deeply embarrassed, and was sorry she
had allowed herself to be persuaded into trying on the gown.
"Mollie!" exclaimed Harriet suddenly. "Don't you have a monthly
allowance?"
Mollie nodded her head. Silly Mollie hoped Harriet would not ask her just
what her allowance was. For Mrs. Thurston could give her daughters only
five dollars a month apiece for their pin money.
"Then I know just what to do," Harriet declared. "You must just buy this
frock, Mollie dear. I expect to have a dividend from some stock I own,
and when it comes in, I shall pay Madame for the dress, and you can pay
me back as it suits you. Do please consent, Mollie. Just look at yourself
in the glass once more and I know you can't resist my plan."
Mollie did take one more peep at herself in the mirror. But if she had
only had more time to think, and Harriet and the dressmaker had not
argued the point with her, she would never have fallen before her
temptation.
"You are sure you won't mind how long I take to pay you back, Harriet?"
Mollie inquired weakly.
"Sure!" Harriet answered.
"All right then; I will take it," Mollie agreed in a sudden rush of
recklessness, feeling dreadfully excited. For little Mollie Thurston had
never owned a gown in her life that had cost more than fifteen dollars,
except the two or three frocks which had been given to her on different
occasions.
"Madame, you will send Miss Thurston's gown with mine, so she can wear it
to the White House reception," Harriet insisted.
"Certainly; I shall send the frocks this evening," the dressmaker agreed,
suavely. "But are you sure you will be in? I want you to be at home when
the frocks arrive."
Several other customers had entered Madame Louise's establishment.
Harriet Hamlin flushed at the dressmaker's question. But she replied
carelessly: "Oh, yes; I shall be in all the afternoon. You can send them
at any time you like."
Before Mollie and Harriet had gotten out into the street, Mollie clutched
Harriet's arm in swift remorse. "Oh, Harriet, dear, I have done a
perfectly awful thing! I must go back and tell Madame that I cannot take
that gown. I don't see how I could have said I would take it. Why, it
will take me ages to pay you so much money!" Mollie's eyes were big and
frightened. Her lips were trembling.
"Sh-sh! You silly child!" Harriet protested. "Here comes Mrs. Wilson. You
can't go to tell Madame Louise you have changed your mind before so many
people. And what is the use of worrying over such a small debt? The dress
was a wonderful bargain. You would be a goose not to buy it."
Now, because Harriet was older than Mollie, and Mollie thought her very
beautiful and well trained in all the graces of society, foolish little
Mollie allowed herself to be silenced, and so made endless trouble for
herself and for the people who loved her.
"Don't tell Barbara about my buying the frock, Harriet," Mollie
pleaded, as the two girls went up the steps of the Hamlin home, a short
time before luncheon. "I would rather tell Bab about it myself, when I
get a chance."
"Oh, I won't tell. You may count on me," promised Harriet, in sympathetic
tones. "Will Bab be very cross!"
"Oh, not exactly that," Mollie hesitated. "But I am afraid she will be
worried. I am glad we are at home. I want to lie down, I feel so tired."
Not long after Harriet and Mollie had started off on their shopping
expedition, Bab came across from her room into Ruth's.
"Ruth, do you think I could telephone Mr. Dillon?" she asked. "I picked
up a piece of paper that he dropped in the garden yesterday, and I
forgot to return it to him."
"Give it to me, child. I told you yesterday that I did not wish you to
grow to be an intimate friend of that man. But I am writing him a note to
thank him for his kindness to us last night. I can just put your paper in
my letter and explain matters to him."
Bab carelessly tossed the sheet of paper on Ruth's desk. It opened, and
Ruth cried out in astonishment. "Oh, Bab, how queer! This note is written
in Chinese characters. What do you suppose Peter Dillon is doing with a
letter written in Chinese?"
"I don't know I am sure, Ruth," Bab demurred. "It is none of our
business."
"Did you get the yellow ribbon, Mollie?" Barbara asked her sister, two
hours later, when Mollie and Harriet came in from their shopping. "I have
been fixing up your dress all morning. It is awfully pretty. Now I want
to make the sash."
"I did not get any ribbons, Bab." Mollie answered peevishly. "I told you
I would not wear that old yellow dress."