Two Little Women Part 38

"We'll see when next summer comes," returned Dolly, laughing. "Perhaps you won't like Surfwood a bit, and you won't want to go there next summer, and if you don't, of course I won't come up here. You look awfully well in that new suit, Dotty."

"Hope I do, for it doesn't feel very good. Collar's too stiff." Dotty wriggled with a feeling of discomfort that the first wearing of a new garment often brings. The girls both wore suits of blue serge, made similarly, but not exactly alike; Dotty's being trimmed with black satin and collar and cuffs of fine white embroidery, while Dotty's was enlivened by accessories of bright plaid silk and tiny gilt b.u.t.tons.

The trip was a pleasant one, and they reached New York next morning in time for luncheon. This Mr. Rose gave them at an attractive restaurant and the girls greatly enjoyed the novel scenes of the Metropolis.

"I just love to eat in a restaurant, don't you?" said Dolly, as she lingered over her elaborate and complicated dessert.

"Yes, indeed; I love to look around and wonder who the people are. Only they're all grownups. You don't see hardly any children or girls our age."

"No," said Mr. Rose, "a public restaurant is no place for kiddies, except on such an occasion as this, when I have to feed you somewhere.

But since you're here, you may as well enjoy yourselves. Do you want some more little cakes?"

After due reflection, the girls concluded that they did, and the fascinating tray of French confections was again offered for their selection.

At the station where they were to take the train for Surfwood, Mr. Fayre met them.

"Well," he exclaimed. "So I am to take the responsibility of these two beautiful young ladies."

"Yes," rejoined Mr. Rose; "but I'm glad to tell you that they are not really difficult to manage. They have behaved most properly all day and honestly I hate to give them up. I know Camp Crosstrees will seem deserted and desolate without these two little rays of sunshine."

After affectionate leavetakings, Mr. Rose departed and the two girls went on with Mr. Fayre.

He was not of such a jolly nature as Mr. Rose, nor so inclined to talk with the children.

He placed them in adjoining chairs in the parlour car, and after supplying them with picture papers and candies, he seemed to consider his responsibilities at an end, and taking his own seat, immediately buried himself in his newspaper.

"Not much like the Adirondacks, is it?" said Dolly, as they whirled along through the flat landscapes of New Jersey.

"No, of course not; you wouldn't expect it. How soon do we see the ocean?"

"Very soon, now. We'll get to Surfwood about six, but we'll see the ocean long before then, there are so many beach stations."

As they neared Surfwood, Mr. Fayre threw aside his papers and looked out for the girls again. He was a most courteous man and politely a.s.sisted them with their various belongings, treating them more as grown ladies than as children.

"There they are!" he cried, as the train stopped at the picturesque little station and they spied a big motor car in which Mrs. Fayre and Trudy were sitting.

Trudy was looking lovely in her light summer costume and she warmly welcomed the travellers as they got into the motor.

"How brown you both are," said Mrs. Fayre, kissing the girls; "a nice healthy tan, and very becoming! Did you hate to leave your camp, Dotty?

and I suppose you, too, Dolly, became a devotee of mountain life."

"We did have lovely times, Mother, and I expect Dot was sorry to give it up, but I persuaded her."

"You'll have lovely times here, too," promised Trudy, smiling at them; "I'll see to that."

The car stopped at the entrance to a very large hotel. The broad verandas were filled with people, gaily dressed, and gathered in laughing, chatting groups. Between them and the ocean was a broad boardwalk also filled with people.

"Come along, girls," said Mrs. Fayre, and Dotty and Dolly followed her across the veranda and into a large entrance hall. It was very beautiful, with glistening white and gold decorations, a thick moss-green velvet carpet and tall palms round the walls. Then followed a bewildering succession of gorgeous rooms, and finally they went up in an elevator.

"Here we are," and Mrs. Fayre led the two girls into a large and handsomely furnished suite.

"This is our general sitting room," she went on, "and this is your bedroom, right next to Trudy's."

They entered a large room, with two bra.s.s beds and attractive appointments of all sorts. The chairs and lounges were covered with gay chintz and there was a long deep window seat from which, across a balcony filled with flowers, they could see the ocean.

"How perfectly lovely!" cried Dotty; "not much like our little rooms at camp, Doll. Oh, I'm sure I shall be very happy here. It's awfully kind of you, Mrs. Fayre, to invite me."

"I'm very glad to have you, dear, and I only hope you'll enjoy it as much as Dolly did her stay with you. We can't give you the wild, free life of a mountain camp, but we're going to do all we can to interest and amuse you. But I'm not sure that you will like the plan for this evening. As your things aren't unpacked, I thought you two wouldn't dine downstairs with us to-night, but would have a nice little dinner sent up here and served in the sitting-room."

"Oh, goody!" cried Dolly; "that's a lot more fun. I don't feel like dressing up for dinner to-night and I think that's a lovely plan. Don't you, Dot?"

As a matter of fact, Dotty would have preferred to go downstairs, for she was impatient to see more of the big hotel and the gay people. But she politely acquiesced, and Mrs. Fayre bustled away, saying she would see them again after dinner.

"Now we'll have a lovely time, Dotsy, all to ourselves," Dolly said, as she flew around the room arranging things to suit herself.

A trim maid appeared to a.s.sist in any way needed, and the girls were glad to change their travelling clothes, and, after a refreshing bath, to don their pretty kimonos and boudoir caps, that Trudy had left in readiness for them.

"Trudy's a trump!" cried Dolly. "See these heavenly things she has laid out for us! A pink silk room-gown for you and a blue one for me, with caps to match. We share Trudy's bathroom, you see, so you can have this gla.s.s shelf for your things and I'll take this one for mine. I guess that's the dinner coming now, and then our trunks will come, and we can put our things away."

A very attractive little dinner was served in the sitting-room and the two girls sat down to it with a feeling as if they were "Playing house."

"We're to dine with the grownups after to-night," said Dolly; "new thing for me, 'cause always before I've had my supper in the children's dining-room. But Mother says, now I'm fifteen, I can always dine with them, unless they have special company and then we'll have ours up here like this. Isn't this salad good?"

"Perfectly lovely. But, somehow, I feel so queer. It's such a sudden change from the camp table and Maria's flap-jacks."

Dolly laughed. "Yes, it is different. But I like that, Dot, the sudden change I mean. Crosstrees was just right in every way for mountain and camp doings. Now this seash.o.r.e stunt is altogether different, but I like this, too. And I think it's nice for us to have both kinds, one right after the other."

"So do I," said Dotty, as she contentedly ate her frozen pudding.

CHAPTER XVIII

DOLL OVERBOARD!

The next morning Dotty and Dolly went with the Fayre family to breakfast in the hotel dining-room.

Very fresh and pretty the girls looked, Dolly in a pale blue linen and Dotty in pink linen with a black velvet belt.

The great dining-room was large and airy, and the sunshine and sea breeze came in at the open windows.

The Fayres' table was pleasantly placed overlooking the ocean, and Dotty's black eyes roved round the room in delighted appreciation of the surroundings.

"Oh!" she exclaimed suddenly, "there are the twin Browns! Did you know they were here, Dolly?"

"I thought they would be; they come here 'most every summer." And Dolly smiled across the room at Tod and Tad, who bobbed their heads and grinned in response.