so, but during the
rest of the day their time was occupied in seeing Madeleine, her hundreds
of beautiful wedding gifts, meeting Judge Hilliard all over again, and
being introduced to Mrs. Curtis's other guests. The four girls went to
bed at midnight, thinking of their bridesmaids' gowns, but without having
had the chance even to inquire about them.

Mrs. Curtis belonged to the old and infinitely more aristocratic portion
of New York society. She did not belong to the new smart set, which
numbers nearer four thousand, and does so much to make society
ridiculous. Madeleine had asked that she might be married very quietly.
She had never become used to the gay world of fashion after her strange
and unhappy youth. It made the girls and their teacher smile to see what
Mrs. Curtis considered a quiet wedding.

Miss Jenny Ann and her four charges had their coffee and rolls in Madge's
room the next morning at about nine o'clock. Madge peeped out of the
doorway, there were so many odd noises in the hall. The upstairs hall was
a mass of beautiful evergreens. Men were hanging garlands of smilax on
the balusters. The house was heavy with the scent of American Beauty
roses. But there was no sign of Mrs. Curtis or of Madeleine or Tom, and
still no mention of the bridesmaids' costumes for the girls.

Lillian Seldon was looking extremely forlorn. "Suppose Mrs. Curtis has
forgotten our frocks!" she suggested tragically, as Madge came back with
her report of the house's decorations. "She has had such an awful lot to
attend to that she may not have remembered that she offered to give us
our frocks. Won't it be dreadful if Madeleine has to be married without
our being bridesmaids after all?"

"O Lillian! what a dreadful idea!" exclaimed Eleanor.

Even Phyllis looked sober and Miss Jenny Ann looked exceedingly
uncomfortable.

"O, you geese! cheer up!" laughed Madge. "I know Mrs. Curtis would not
disappoint us for worlds. Why, she has all our measures. She couldn't
forget. Oh, dear, does my breakfast gown look all right? There is some
one knocking at our door. It may be that Mrs. Curtis has sent up our
frocks."

"Then open the door, for goodness' sake," begged Eleanor. "Your breakfast
gown is lovely; only at home we called it a wrapper, but then you were
not visiting on Fifth Avenue."

Madge made a saucy little face at Eleanor. Then she saw a group of
persons standing just outside their bedroom door. A man-servant held four
enormous