and neatly displayed inside lighted glass cases, and girls were rushing
about carrying still more piled in their arms. There were more clothes
then Arethusa had imagined could ever have been made, right here on the
one floor of this huge shop.

To the floor-walker who stepped up to greet them, Elinor conveyed her
desire to buy a dress for Arethusa; "And I should like Miss Rosa, Mr.
Wells, if she's not too busy."

Mr. Wells, bowing grandly from the waist, ushered them into a small
room hung all around with mirrors, and disappeared. Then he reappeared
in a few moments to announce that Miss Rosa would be with them very
shortly, if Mrs. Worthington would be so kind as to wait.

Arethusa was simply overcome by the rapidity with which events moved
forward, to carry her with them. Speech was an impossibility. She could
only follow Elinor silently.

She sat and gazed about her in the little mirrored room. Her quaint
figure was repeated again and again on all sides in a very bewildering
way; and she noted that the hat of each Arethusa had somehow got
crooked far down over one ear. She straightened it immediately. There
were many Elinors in the mirrors also, and Arethusa admired the grace
of those reflections with unaffected showing of her admiration. She
especially admired the soft sweep of Elinor's long stole of moleskin.
There was no more envy in her regard of the difference of their
appearance in these many unmistakable evidences of it than there had
been when they had both been dressed for the Anniversary the night
before. Arethusa rejoiced that Elinor was such a Beautiful Creature;
and it was Perfect Bliss to be with her and watch her lovely clothes,
without worrying about herself in any way.

Miss Rosa did not keep them waiting long, and at Elinor's request when
she did come, she flitted away in a business-like manner that spelled a
knowledge of what was wanted, to return bearing an armful of color;
pale blues and pinks and lavenders and whites and deeper creams, in the
softest of satins and silks and chiffons and lace. Among all this
loveliness was glimpsed by Arethusa a fleck of green.

"Mother," this whispered to Elinor, as Miss Rosa in her modish and
well-fitting black crepe de chine and her air of knowing what she was
about, was just a trifle awe-inspiring, "do you suppose that would be a
Green Dress?"

But Miss Rosa heard the whisper. She smiled in a friendly way at
Arethusa, for Miss Rosa was a kindly soul