Part 28 (2/2)
”I see,” said Dr. Trenire quietly, and he gazed for a moment gravely into the fire before he left the room.
Betty never knew what pa.s.sed between her father and her aunt; but she heard no more about the gray stockings, and she wrote off delightedly to Kitty to tell her all about it.
Kitty was out when the letter came. It was the day on which the girls were taken for an afternoon's shopping or sight-seeing.
”I really must get some presents to take home to them all,” she had said quite seriously to Pamela in the morning.
Pamela laughed. ”There are eleven more weeks to do it in,” she said.
But Kitty covered her ears. ”Don't, don't,” she cried--”just when I have been telling myself that time is flying, and that I haven't many more chances.”
”Well, you haven't _many_,” laughed Pamela. ”Of course we don't go every week. I think you are wise, though, to get your things while you have the money, and if you see things later that you like better you mustn't mind.”
”I shall keep my eyes turned away from the shops,” said Kitty. ”Now be quiet, Pamela, while I make my list.”
”Mine is ready,” said Pamela, with something between a laugh and a sigh, and she held up a blank sheet.
”Haven't you any one to get anything for?” said Kitty sympathetically, sorry At once that she had talked so much about herself. ”Poor Pamela!”
”Only Miss Hammond,” said Pamela. ”We generally give her some flowers-- most of us do, at least. Rhoda Collins doesn't; she says it seems such a waste of money, as flowers fade so soon. I suggested one day that she should give Miss Hammond a cake instead, as that at any rate was useful.”
”And did she?”
”No; she said one couldn't get anything very nice for a penny.”
Kitty t.i.ttered. ”Flowers for Miss Hammond,” she wrote on her list.
”What do you give to Miss Pidsley?”
”Miss Pidsley!” Pamela looked surprised at her question. ”Oh, nothing.
You see, Miss Hammond goes with us, and--and--well, we all like her; but Miss Pidsley--I don't know why, but I think we never thought of giving her anything. I should be afraid to.”
The shopping was really great fun; the girls swarmed about the counters and wandered about the shops, going into raptures over this thing and hesitating about buying that thing, until it really seemed as though all the purchases never would be made. Yet by degrees they somehow acquired a great many curious possessions.
Kitty bought a nice pocket-book for her father, a little brooch for Betty, a book for Tony, and a penknife for Anna; but it took so long to decide on these that she left her presents for the servants to get another day, for she still had to buy her flowers for Miss Hammond, and teatime was fast approaching. The flower-shop was perhaps the most fascinating of all; the cut flowers, the ferns, and the plants in the pots were perfectly bewildering in their beauty. Kitty was in raptures, and almost wished she had bought flowers to take home to them all, instead of the things she had got.
”Father would simply love that fern,” she cried, ”and Betty would go wild over that little white basket with the ferns and hyacinths in it.
O Pamela, I do so want it for her! I want them all!”
Pamela had not lost her head as Kitty had. ”Well, the hyacinths will have faded long before you go home, Kitty, and the brooch is easier to pack.”
Kitty laughed somewhat shamefacedly. Her eye was already caught by a lovely little flowering rose-bush in a pot. ”I must buy that,” she said with determination, ”and I am going to.”
”For Miss Hammond? Oh, how nice! Stupid me had never thought of a plant for her. I always get cut flowers for her room.”
”It isn't for Miss Hammond,” said Kitty rather shyly; ”I have bought violets for her. I think I will take the rose back to Miss Pidsley.”
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