Five Little Peppers at School Part 8

"My cousin, Kathleen Briggs. She just came to-day," said Silvia, "while I was at school, and so mother thought it would be nice to have you girls out to supper, 'cause they're only going to stay till to-morrow.

Oh, it's so fine that you've come! Well, come and get in. Polly, you're going in the carriage with Kathleen and me. Come on."

Alexia crowded up close behind.

"I'm going with Polly Pepper, this time," announced Sally, pushing in between; "Alexia always gets her."

"Well, she's my very dearest friend," said Alexia coolly, and working her long figure up close to Polly, as Silvia led her off, "so of course I always must go with her."

"Well, so she is our very dearest friend, too, Alexia Rhys," declared Clem, "and we're going to have her sometimes, ourselves." And there they were in a dreadful state, and Silvia's cousin, the new girl, to see it all!

She jingled her bracelets, and picked at the long chain dangling from her neck, and stared at them all.

"Oh my goodness!" exclaimed Polly Pepper with very red cheeks. "Alexia, don't--don't," she begged.

"Well, I don't care," said Alexia recklessly, "the girls are always picking at me because I will keep next to you, Polly, and you're my very dearest friend, and----"

"But Sally had such a fright about her pin," said Polly in a low tone.

Alexia was crowded up close and hugging her arm, so no one else heard.

"Well, that old pin dropped in the ribbon; she had it herself all the time, oh dear!" Alexia nearly went off again at the remembrance.

"She felt badly, all the same," said Polly slowly. She didn't even smile, and Alexia could feel that the arm was slipping away from her.

"Oh dear me!" she began, then she dropped Polly Pepper's arm. "Sally, you may go next," she cried suddenly, and she skipped back into the bunch of the other girls.

Polly sent her an approving little nod, and she didn't fail to smile now. Alexia ran over to the wagonette, and hopped in, not daring to trust herself to see Sally Moore's satisfaction ahead in the coveted seat.

The other girls jumping in, the wagonette was soon filled, and away they spun for the two miles over to the Hornes' beautiful place. And before long, their respects having been paid to Mrs. Horne, the whole bevy was up in Silvia's pretty pink and white room overlooking the lake.

"I think it's just too lovely for anything here, Silvia Horne,"

exclaimed Sally, whose spirits were quite recovered now. She had her aunt's pin all safe, and she had ridden up next to Polly. "Oh girls, she has a new pincushion and cover."

"Yes, a whole new set," said Silvia carelessly, as the girls rushed over from the bed where they were laying their things, to see this new acquisition to the beautiful room.

"Well, if I could have such perfectly exquisite things," breathed Alexia as they all oh-ed and ah-ed over the pink ribbons and dainty lace, "I'd be the very happiest girl."

Kathleen Briggs thrust her long figure in among the bevy. "That toilet set is very pretty," she said indifferently and with quite a young-lady air.

"Very pretty!" repeated Alexia, turning her pale eyes upon her in astonishment, "well, I should think it was! It's too perfectly elegant for anything!"

"Oh dear me!" Kathleen gave a little laugh. "It's just nothing to the one I have on my toilet table at home. Besides, I shall bring home some Oriental lace, and have a new one: I'm going around the world to-morrow, you know."

"Oh my goodness!" exclaimed Alexia faintly. And the other girls fell back, and stared respectfully.

"Yes," said Kathleen, delighted at the effect she had produced. "We start to-morrow, and we don't know how long we shall be gone. Perhaps two years. Papa says he'll stay if we want to; but mamma and I may get tired and come home." She jingled her bracelets worse than ever.

"They've come to bid us good-bye, you see," said Silvia, to break the uncomfortable silence.

"Oh yes," said Polly Pepper.

"Well, if you've got your things off, let's go out of doors," proposed Silvia suddenly.

"Yes, do let's." The girls drew a long breath as they raced off.

"I think that Kathleen Briggs is too perfectly horrid for anything"--Alexia got up close to Polly as they flew down the stairs--"with her going round the world, and her sniffing at Silvia's toilet set."

"Hush--hush!" whispered Polly, "she'll hear you."

"Well, I don't care; and she's going round the world to-morrow, so what does it signify?" said Alexia. "Oh, don't go so fast, Polly. You most made me tumble on my nose."

"Well, you mustn't come with me, then, if you don't keep up," said Polly, with a merry little laugh, and hurrying on.

"I'm going to keep up," cried Alexia, dashing after, "but you go so fast," she grumbled.

"We're going to have tea out on the lawn," announced Silvia in satisfaction, as the bevy rushed out on the broad west piazza.

The maids were already busily setting three little tables, that were growing quite pretty under their hands.

"There will be four at each table," said Silvia. "Polly's going to sit with Kathleen and me, and one other girl--I don't know which one yet,"

she said slowly.

"Oh, choose me." Alexia worked her way along eagerly to the front. "I'm her dearest friend--Polly's, I mean. So you ought to choose me."

"Well, I sha'n't," declared Silvia. "You crowded me awfully at Lucy Bennett's party, and kept close to Polly Pepper all the time."

"Well, that's because you would keep Polly yourself. You crowded and pushed horribly yourself, you know you did." Her long face was quite red now.

"Well, I had to," declared Silvia coolly. "At any rate, you sha'n't have Polly to-day, for I've quite decided. Clem, you shall have the other seat at my table."

Clem hopped up and down and beat her hands together in glee. "There, Alexia Rhys!" she cried in triumph. "Who's got Polly Pepper now, I'd like to know!"

Alexia, much discomfited, fell back. "Well, I think that's a great way to give a party," she said, "to get up a fight the first thing."

But Silvia and Kathleen had got Polly Pepper one on each side, and were now racing down to the lake. "We're going to have a sail," called Silvia over her shoulder, so they all followed, Alexia among the rest, with no time for anything else. There was the steam launch waiting for them.

"Girls--girls!" Mrs. Horne called to them from the library, "wait a moment. Mr. and Mrs. Briggs are going too."

"Oh bother!" began Silvia. Then the color flew into her face, for Kathleen heard.

"I shall tell my mother what you said," she declared.

"Dear me! no, you mustn't," begged Silvia in alarm.

"Yes, I shall too." Kathleen's bracelets jingled worse than ever as she shook them out.

"Well, I call that real hateful," broke out Silvia, a red spot on either cheek, "you know I didn't mean it."

"Well, you said it. And if you think it's a bother to take my mother and father out on your old launch, I sha'n't stop here and bring you anything when I come home from around the world."