Dorothy Dainty at Glenmore | Page 6

all the rainbow colors
whenever and wherever she appears?"
"Surely, but what are their names?" inquired a pale, sickly-looking girl
who had joined the group.
"Don't know their names," said Betty, "but I heard Miss Rainbow
telling her friend that she intended to wear 'something very dressy'
to-night, so I'm eager to see her. My! Here she comes now."
"Good gracious!" gasped Valerie, under her breath.
With head very high, Patricia rushed, rather than walked across the
room, until she reached the center, when she stopped as if to permit
every one to obtain a good view of her costume. Her bold manner made
her more absurd even than her dress which was, as Betty Chase
declared, "surprising!"
Turning slowly around to the right, then deliberately to the left, she

appeared to feel herself a paragon of fashion, a model dressed to give
the pupils of Glenmore a chance to observe something a bit finer than
they had ever seen before.
As Patricia slowly turned, Arabella, like a satellite, as slowly revolved
about her.
Who could wonder that a wave of soft laughter swept over the room. It
was evident that vanity equalling that of the peacock moved Patricia to
turn about that every one might see both front and back of her dress,
but no one could have guessed why Arabella in a plain brown woolen
dress kept pace with her silly friend.
It was not vanity that kept droll little Arabella moving. No, indeed.
Thus far, Arabella had made no new acquaintances.
As she entered the reception-room with Patricia she saw only a sea of
strange faces, and with a wild determination at least to have Patricia to
speak to, she trotted around her, that she might not, at any moment,
find herself talking to Patricia's back.
That surely would be awkward, she thought.
Patricia's dress was a light gray silk, tastefully made, and had she been
content to wear it as it had been sent to her from New York, she would
have looked well-dressed, and no one would have made comments
upon her appearance.
The soft red girdle gave a touch of color, but not nearly enough to
please Patricia.
At the village store she had purchased ribbons of many colors, from
which she had made bows or rosettes of every hue, and these she had
tacked upon her slippers. Her hair was tied with a bright blue ribbon,
and over the shoulders of her blouse she had sewed pink and yellow
ribbons. Narrow green edged her red girdle.

Blue and buff, rose and orange, straw-color and lavender, surely not a
tint was missing, and the result was absolutely comical! One would
have thought that a lunatic had designed the costume.
And when she believed that her dress had been seen from all angles,
Patricia left the reception-room, passing to a larger room beyond,
where she seated herself, and at once assumed a bored expression. Not
the least interest in other pupils had she. She had come to the little
social to be gazed at, and as soon as she believed that all must have
seen her, the party held no further interest for her.
She heard the buzz of whispered conversation in the room that she had
left, and she wished that she might know what they were saying. It was
well that she could not.
"What an unpleasant-looking girl!" said one.
"Wasn't that dress a regular rainbow?" whispered another.
"Oh, but she was funny, turning around for us to see her, just like a wax
dummy in a store window," said a third.
[Illustration: SHE WISHED THAT SHE MIGHT KNOW WHAT
THEY WERE SAYING.--Page 32.]
"She's queer to go off by herself!" remarked the first one who had
spoken.
"We're not very nice," said Betty Chase, who thus far had not spoken,
"that is not very kind, to be so busily talking about her."
"Well, I declare, Betty, who'd ever dream that you, who are always
getting into scrapes would boldly give us a lecture."
Betty's black eyes flashed.
"I know I get into funny scrapes," she snapped, "but whatever I do, I
don't talk about people, Ida Mayo."

"You don't have time to," exclaimed her chum, Valerie Dare. "It takes
all your spare time to plan mischief."
In the laugh that followed, Betty forgot that she was vexed.
Patricia began to find it rather dull sitting alone in a room back of the
reception-hall.
She felt that she had entered the hall in a burst of glory; had fairly
dazzled all beholders!
She had believed that the girls would be so entranced with her
appearance that they would follow her that they might again inspect her
costume.
She was amazed that she had been permitted to sit alone if she chose.
The other pupils thought it