Page:Girls of Central High on the Stage.djvu/24

14 den of disappointment and trouble. She was not able to attend the M. O. R. reception, although she was a member. Laura Belding, her very dearest friend, would be there and would wonder why she, Jess, did not appear. And after the reception Chet Belding, Laura's brother, would be waiting to take Jess home—she hadn't had the heart to tell Chet that she would not need his escort from the reception.

But, as Jess had told her mother, that blue party dress had become impossible. Let alone its being months behind the fashion, it was frayed around the bottom and the front breadth was sorely stained. And she hadn't another gown fit to put on in the evening. She did so long for something to wear at a party in which her friends would not know her two blocks away. So she had "cut" the reception at the M. O. R. house.

All this was a heavy load on Jess Morse's mind as she approached, with hesitating steps, the butter and egg shop kept by Mr. Vandergriff.

"Certainly," thought the troubled girl, "I either need a whole lot of courage, or a lot of money—either would come in very handy tonight."

Just then Jess was aroused from her brown