Part 18 (1/2)

CHAPTER XIV

NEWS OF s.h.i.+PWRECK

Cora, with an impatient, nervous gesture, laid aside the piece of lace upon which she was engaged. The long, breathing sigh which followed her rising from the chair, was audible across the room.

”What's the matter?” asked Bess, who, seated near a window, where the light was best, was industriously engaged in mending a hole in one of her silk stockings. She held it off at arm's length, on her spread-out hand, as if to judge whether the repair would show when the article was worn.

”I just can't do another st.i.tch!” Cora said. ”It makes me so--nervous.”

”It's beautiful lace--a lovely pattern,” spoke Belle, as she picked it up from the table. ”I don't see how Inez carries them all in her head,” for Cora was working out a model set for her by the Spanish girl.

”Nor I,” said did Bess, ”It's perfectly wonderful.”

She glanced at Cora, who had gone to stand by another window to watch for signs of clearing weather, that, of late, had come with more certain promise.

”There! I think that will do!” announced Bess, as she cut off the silk thread. ”I wonder if we shall ever get to the point where we can go without stockings, as the Spanish ladies do here.”

”Do they?” asked Cora, absently. ”I hadn't noticed.”

”They do indeed, my dear,” answered her chum. ”I read about it, but I didn't believe it until Inez took us to call on Senora Malachita the other day--Belle and I--you didn't come, you know.”

”I remember.”

”Well, my dear, positively she didn't have any stockings on--only slippers, and she received us that way. Belle and I had all we could do not to laugh, and I wondered if she could be so poor that she couldn't afford them, though her, house, was beautiful, and the plaza, with its fountain and flowers, a perfect dream.

”But Inez told me that often even the well-to-do Spanish ladies here don't wear stockings, unless they go to church or to a dance. Even then they don't put them on, sometimes, until just before they go into the church. We saw one, riding in on a donkey. She stopped just outside the church, and put on her stockings as calmly as though they were gloves.”

”Fancy!” cried Cora.

”Then you aren't going to follow that fas.h.i.+on?” asked Belle.

”No, indeed!” exclaimed the plump Bess, as she carefully inspected the other stocking for a possible worn place. She did not find it, and sighed in content.

”Aren't you going to finish that lace, Cora?” asked Belle.

”Not now, at any rate. I just can't sit here and--wait! I want to be doing something.”

”But there's nothing to do, dear,” objected Belle. ”We can't do anything but wait for news of them. And no news is always good news, you know.”

”Just because it has to be!” retorted Cora.

”But, girls, positively, I believe the weather is clearing! Yes, there's a blue patch of sky. Oh, if this storm should be over!”

Her two chums came and stood by her at the cas.e.m.e.nt. Off to the west the dark and sullen sky did seem to be clearing. The rain had ceased some time ago, but the wind was still blowing half a gale, and the boys, who had come back from the docks a short while before, reported that the sea was still very high, and that no s.h.i.+ps had ventured to leave the harbor. Then Jack and Walter went out again, saying they were going to the marina, the water plaza.

”Oh, but it is going to clear!” cried Cora, in delight, an hour or so later. ”Now we shall hear some news of them!”

”Won't it be lovely!” exclaimed Bess. ”Oh, I have been so worried!”

”So have I,” admitted her sister. ”But of course they are safe!”