"But there's your chambray--that isn't worn."
Elsie shook her head.
"But I can't--that, truly, Genevieve. It's got worse and worse every
day, until now _anybody_ can tell Cora and Clara apart!"
Genevieve choked back a laugh. She was frowning prodigiously when Elsie
looked up.
"I'll tell you, Elsie, I've got just the thing," she cried. "Wear my
white linen--it's perfectly fresh, and 'twill fit you, I'm sure."
Elsie's face turned scarlet.
"Oh, Genevieve! I wouldn't--I couldn't! I'd never, never do such an
awful thing," she gasped. "Why, what _would_ Aunt Kate say?--my wearing
your clothes like that! Oh, I never thought of your taking it that way!
Never mind--I'll fix something," she choked, as she turned and fled down
the hall, leaving a distressed and almost an angry Genevieve behind her.
For some minutes Genevieve busied herself with her own toilet, jerking
hooks and ribbons into place with unnecessary force; then she turned
despairingly to Mrs. Kennedy, whose room she was sharing.
"Aunt Julia, what's the use of having anything to give, if folks won't
take it when you give it?" she demanded, irritably.
"Not having followed your thoughts for the last five minutes, my dear, I
fear I'm unable to give you a very helpful answer," smiled Mrs. Kennedy,
serenely. And Genevieve, remembering Elsie's shamed, red face, decided
suddenly that Elsie's secret was not hers to tell.
Half an hour later Mr. Hartley marshaled his party for the start.
"You're a brave sight," he declared, smiling into the bright faces about
him. "You're a mighty brave sight; and I'll leave it to anybody if even
the boys in line to-day will make a finer show!"
The Happy Hexagons laughed and blushed and courtesied prettily; and only
Genevieve knew that the smile on Elsie's face was a little forced--Elsie
was wearing the green chambray.
There was an awed "Oh-h!" of wonder and admiration when Mr. Hartley's
party came in sight of the great parade grounds at Fort Sam Houston.
There was a still deeper, longer, louder "Oh-h-h!" when, sitting at one
end of the grounds, the girls heard the first stirring notes of the
band.
To the Hexagon Club it was a most wonderful sight--those long lines of
men moving with such perfect precision. Fresh from the Alamo as the
girls were, with the story of that dreadful slaughter in their ears--to
them it almost seemed that there before them marched the brave men who
years ago had given up their lives so heroically in the little chapel.
It was Tilly who broke the silence.
"Oh, I do just love soldiers," she cried, with a hurried glance sideways
to make sure that Mr. Hartley in the next carriage could not hear her.
"Don't you, Genevieve?" But Genevieve was too absorbed to answer.
A little later the band played "The Star-spangled Banner," and there
sounded the signal gun for the lowering of the colors. In the glorious
excitement of all this, even Tilly herself forgot to talk.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account