Page:An Old Fashioned Girl.djvu/248

232 Fan got no further, for Polly uttered a cry of rapture and clasped her hands.

"Go? Of course I will; I've been dying to go all day; tried to get tickets this morning and couldn't; been fuming about it ever since; and now—oh, how splendid!" and Polly could not restrain an ecstatic skip, for this burst of joy rather upset her.

"Well, you come to tea, and we'll dress together, and go all comfortable with Tom, who is in a heavenly frame of mind to-day."

"I must run home and get my things," said Polly, resolving on the spot to buy the nicest pair of gloves the city afforded.

"You shall have my white cloak, and any other little rigging you want. Tommy likes to have his ladies a credit to him, you know," said Fanny, departing to take a beauty sleep.

Polly instantly decided that she wouldn't borrow Becky's best bonnet, as she at first intended, but get a new one, for in her present excited state, no extravagance seemed too prodigal in honor of this grand occasion. I am afraid that Maud's lesson was not as thorough as it should have been, for Polly's head was such a chaos of bonnets, gloves, opera-cloaks and fans, that Maud blundered through, murdering time and tune at her own sweet will. The instant it was over, Polly rushed away and bought not only the kids, but a bonnet frame, a bit of illusion, and a pink crape rose, which had tempted her for weeks in a certain shop window; then home and to work with all the skill and speed of a distracted milliner.

"I'm rushing madly into expense, I'm afraid; but