le and Betty was
putting on her skirt again, when Tom's card came up to her. By the time
she got down-stairs they were all waiting in the reception-room and Mr.
Dwight was helping Georgia into her coat and laughing at the chiffon
scarf that she assured him was a great protection, so that Betty didn't
see Georgia in her hated evening gown until they took off their wraps at
the theatre.

"Awfully sorry I couldn't come to help you," she whispered, as they went
out to the carriage, "but I know you're all right."

"I did my little best not to disgrace you," Georgia whispered back. "My
neck is horribly bony, no matter what mother thinks; but I covered some
of it up with a chain."

When they got to the theatre, almost every seat was filled and a pretty
little usher hurried them through the crowd at the door, assuring them
importantly over her shoulder that the concert would begin in one
minute and she couldn't seat even box-holders during a number. Sure
enough, before they had fairly gotten into their places, the Glee Club
girls began to come out and arrange themselves in a rainbow-tinted
semicircle for the first number. They sang beautifully and looked so
pretty that Tom gallantly declared they deserved to be encored on that
account alone; and he led the applause so vigorously that everybody
looked up at their box and laughed. Alice Waite had the other seats in
it, and as the three men were friends and all in the highest spirits, it
was a gay party.

"There's Jerry Holt," Tom would say, "see him stare at our elegance."

"Oh, we're making the rest of the fellows envious all right," Ashley
would answer. "Who's the stunning girl in the second row, next the
aisle? We don't miss a thing from here, do we?"

"Prettiest lay-out I've ever seen, this concert is," Alice's escort
would declare fervently. "Sh, Tommie, the banjo club's going to play."

And then they would settle themselves to watch the stage and listen to
the music for a while.

"It's all good, but what I'm looking forward to is this," said Ashley
Dwight, pointing out the Glee Club's last number on his program. "I
can't wait to hear 'The Fames of Miss Ames.'"

"The what?" asked Betty, consulting her card. "Why, Georgia Ames, is it
about you? Did you know they were going to have it?"

Georgia nodded. "The leader came and asked me if I cared. She seemed to
think it would take, so I told her to go ahead. But I didn't realize
that this concert was such a big thing,