He made no further references to paws or washings. He merely
whistled again to Angela and the dogs, who were reluctant, but
struggled obediently down from the counterpane, leaving, alas,
distinct traces in all directions.
"If you frow the covers back nobody'll see anything," he hinted from
the doorway, and was gone.
Joy did not take his hint. Instead, she pulled the counterpane off
bodily and put it in the window to sun, and then went on dressing.
Things were so cheerful and sunny and funny in this house.
"Oh, John was right," she thought buoyantly, as she braided her
ropes of hair. "Things do come right if you hope and wish and
_know_ they will!"
The glitter of the ring caught her eyes, in the mirror, between the
bronze ripples of hair, and it reminded her of one thing that was
_not_ settled: her frock for the evening, this wonderful evening
when a party was going to be given for just her!
She asked Phyllis about it as soon as breakfast--a somewhat riotous
meal--was over. She was a little diffident, because she was sure
that any sane grown-up person who was told that there were five good
frocks you hated would tell you you should wear them. But Phyllis
only suggested bringing them down and looking them over. So they did.
"They all have queer things all over them that nobody else wears
except illustrations in historical novels, and they're all of very
good materials," said Joy sadly, laying them out one by one. "And
there isn't one I don't hate to wear. But I never could explain that
to Grandmother, of course."
She looked at Phyllis with a wistful hope in her eyes. Phyllis
thoughtfully lifted the yellow satin skirts of Joy's pet detestation.
"This is a lovely material," she said thoughtfully. "Is it the color
you don't like?"
"N-no," Joy answered doubtfully. "It's the make." Then she burst out
passionately. "I want to look frisky!" she declared. "I want to be
dressed the way John's used to seeing girls. I--I want to look just
as pretty and like folks as Gail Maddox!"
She checked herself, flushing and biting her lip. She hadn't meant
to say that!
But Phyllis took it beautifully.
"No reason why you shouldn't look just exactly like folks," she
soothed. "This is lovely, too, this silver tissue. Goodness, what a
lot of material there is in these angel sleeves!"... She held it up
consideringly... "Wait a minute, Joy, I think I read my title
clear." She ran out of the room, coming back in a moment with a
life-size dress-form in her arms, which she set down.
"Here's Dora, the dress-model," she said cheerfully. "She adjusts."
In proof she began to screw Dora down and in to required
proportions, measuring her by Joy, who watched operations with
fascinated eyes.
"I never knew you could sew," she said.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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