not to say anything to
Pauline about those caps?"
The two Shepherdesses faced each other in silence. Both were sitting
cross-legged in Turkish fashion on the wide divan, and as they had not
turned on their room lights, only the moonlight that streamed across the
ocean illumined the two earnest faces.
Fair-haired Dolly was pale in her earnestness and her blue eyes looked
beseechingly at her friend.
The black-haired Shepherdess was flushed with anger. Her crook had
fallen to the floor and she had tossed her hat beside it. Her black eyes
snapped and her curly head shook as she refused Dolly's request. But the
pleading voice kept on, until at last kindness conquered, and Dotty Rose
gave in.
"All right, you dear old thing," she cried, as she grabbed Dolly round
the neck, "you've a Heavenly disposition, and I'm a horrid, ugly thing,
but I'll do as you say, _because_ you ask me to."
"You're not ugly, Dotty, a bit; only you have a high temper, and your
sense of justice makes you feel like getting even with people. And I
don't say you're not right. Why, of course there is such a thing as
righteous indignation, and this may be the place for it. Only, I _do_
want to have my way this time. You see, we're going home day after
to-morrow, and very likely we'll never see the Cliftons again, after we
leave here. They don't come here every summer like we do. And I hate to
spoil these two last days with a horrid squabble, when we six have been
so nice and chummy and pleasant all the time we've been here. You
needn't have much to do with Pauline, if you don't want to, but just for
two days, can't you just be decently polite to her, and not say anything
about this business?"
"I can and I will," said Dotty, heartily; "but you needn't think, old
lady, that it's because I'm a meek and mild little lamb, and don't feel
like telling that girl what I think of her! No, sir! It's because,--well
first because you ask me to; and second, because I'm the guest of you
and your people, and it wouldn't be a bit nice of me to stir up an
unpleasantness that probably everybody would know about. So, unless Miss
Pauline Clifton refers to it herself, she'll never hear of that cap
subject from me!"
"You're an old trump, Dotty, and I love you a million bushels! And I'm
glad we're going home so soon, and oh, just think! we'll start off to
school together, and we'll both go to High School, and we'll have just
the same lessons, and we'll be together
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