An instant reappearance of Elaine’s old hauteur convinced Peggy that she had blundered. "If I am going to give anything," Elaine said with dignity, "I want it to be nice." The tactful Peggy abandoned her well-intentioned effort to prevent what she felt sure was a piece of reckless generosity. "Well, you’ve done it," she laughed. "It’s pretty certain that we won’t have anything else nearly as nice as this. And, Elaine, you’ll help us the day of the Bazar, won’t you? There’ll be lots to do, selling the things, and serving the ice cream, and being nice to the people who come in." Elaine having reinstated herself in her own eyes, by the character of her donation, graciously agreed to lend whatever assistance might be further required, and then everybody seemed to feel at the same moment that it was time to go. Priscilla excused herself on the ground of her lessons. "With your school principal for a father," she explained, "you can’t afford to fail very often." Ruth remembered that Graham was going to bring somebody home to supper. Amy made vague references to letters that must be written. They moved toward the door with less chatter and laughter than usually characterizes the farewells of girls of their age. At the foot of the walk they parted, Amy and Peggy walking on together, while the other two turned in the opposite direction. "Say, Peggy!" Amy cast a sidelong glance at her companion. "Do you think Elaine is awfully generous?" Peggy’s eyes opened. "Why, it was very generous to give us that collar," she exclaimed. "You know that Irish lace--" "O, yes, I know all about it." Under Amy’s careless good nature a shrewdness of observation sometimes cropped out in a rather surprising fashion. "It was generous, if she cared about the Empty Stockings, but something in the way she did it made me feel as if it was mostly intended to impress us." "O, Amy!" Peggy was unfeignedly shocked. Amy met her reproachful gaze and surrendered with a laugh. "You funny old Peg!" she said disrespectfully. "Well, never mind _why_ she did it. Our finances will get quite a boost, anyway. Good night." And as she crossed the street, she added with seeming irrelevance, "I’m sorry for anybody who makes such hard work of being poor." *CHAPTER VII* *THE BAZAR* The next ten days were busy ones for the girls of the Terrace. It is true the Bazar had been more or less on their minds throughout the year, and many of them had devoted a generous share of their summer’s leisure to preparation, but now industry had become epidemic. The girls met at one another’s homes after school, and, busy as their tongues were, those nimble organs failed to outstrip the industrious fingers.