ll the nice little ingenue--but of what they had seen
_through_. The veil of credulity never dimmed her clear, bold glance.
But for Sheila she was always gentle, so strong in this shrewd,
fastidious young creature was her one deep and uncritical affection.

As the two girls examined the frock on the bed--a rose chiffon over
silk that fairly shrieked of expense--Sheila sighed. "Will you wear it
Friday night?" she inquired wistfully.

For on Friday night Charlotte was to give a party--a real evening party
to which the debutantes and even the older set were coming, as well as
the school-girls and boys. It would be Sheila's first grown-up
party--and she had only a white muslin and a blue sash to make herself
fine with. Thus Mrs. Caldwell had dressed for parties until her
marriage, and it had never occurred to her to provide any other costume
for Sheila, who was not yet quite sixteen. Besides, in Mrs. Caldwell's
opinion--and even in the exquisite Peter's--there was no sweeter sight
than a young girl in white muslin and blue ribbons. But to Sheila, in
comparison with Charlotte's splendor, the white muslin seemed
unspeakably dowdy. And so, when she asked Charlotte about her toilette
for the great occasion, it was with a heart of unfestive heaviness.

"Of course I'll wear this. That's what I got it for. Oh, Sheila,
aren't the little sleeves cunning? Just half way to the elbow--it's
lucky my arms aren't thin!"

But Sheila only sighed again in response to Charlotte's enthusiasm, and
now Charlotte heard the sigh and glanced at her with sudden
attentiveness. "What will you wear?" she demanded.

"I'll have to wear my white muslin. I haven't anything else."

"Oh, Sheila, that's too bad!"

"I wouldn't mind so _very_ much except for--" And Sheila's eyes,
wandering sadly toward Charlotte's chiffon, finished the sentence.

But Charlotte's dismay had already vanished. "You won't have to wear
your white muslin either," she announced in her positive, capable way.
"You can wear one of my frocks, Sheila. You must! Why"--this in a
burst of generosity--"why, you can wear this one!"

"Oh, no, I couldn't do that. Not your new frock, Charlotte! But
you're a dear to offer it!" And Sheila gave her friend a grateful hug,
though Charlotte never encouraged caresses.

"Well, then, perhaps not this one," agreed Charlotte, to whom, used
though she was to her pretty clothes, it would have been something of a
hardship to surren