tty, I _do_ wish you could go to the party. It was so sweet of
Clare to invite you, and perhaps she will be offended if you don't
go--she won't understand. Clare Forbes isn't a girl whose friendship
is to be lightly thrown away when it is offered."

"I know that. But, Caddy dear, it is impossible. I don't think that I
have any foolish pride about clothes, but you know it is out of the
question to think of going to Clare Forbes's party in my last winter's
plaid dress, which is a good two inches too short and skimpy in
proportion. Putting my own feelings aside, it would be an insult to
Clare. There, don't think any more about it."

But Carry did think about it. She lay awake half the night wondering
if there might not be some way for Patty to go to that party. She knew
it was impossible, unless Patty had a new dress, and how could a new
dress be had? Yet she did so want Patty to go. Patty never had any
good times, and she was studying so hard. Then, all at once, Carry
thought of a way by which Patty might have a new dress. She had been
tossing restlessly, but now she lay very still, staring with wide-open
eyes at the moonlit window, with the big willow boughs branching
darkly across it. Yes, it was a way, but could she? _Could_ she? Yes,
she could, and she would. Carry buried her face in her pillow with a
sob and a gulp. But she had decided what must be done, and how it must
be done.

"Are you going to begin on your organdie today?" asked Patty in the
morning, before she started for school.

"I must finish Mrs. Pidgeon's suit first," Carry answered. "Next week
will be time enough to think about my wedding garments."

She tried to laugh and failed. Patty thought with a pang that Carry
looked horribly pale and tired--probably she had worried most of the
night over the interest. "I'm so glad she's going to Chris's wedding,"
thought Patty, as she hurried down the street. "It will take her out
of herself and give her something nice to think of for ever so long."

Nothing more was said that week about the organdie, or the wedding, or
the Forbes's party. Carry sewed fiercely, and sat at her machine for
hours after Patty had gone to bed. The night before the party she said
to Patty, "Braid your hair tonight, Patty. You'll want it nice and
wavy to go to the Forbes's tomorrow night."

Patty thought that Carry was actually trying to perpetrate a weak
joke, and endeavoured to laugh. But it was a rather dreary laugh.
Patty, af