Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/302

284 might like a few days’ warning, if she is to come to the wedding.”

“Shall you ask her mother, too?”

“Why, yes, to the church, Brenda. But she knows us so slightly that she would hardly care to come to the house, even if we should ask her. In my note to Amy I will make it plain that only intimate friends are invited  to the house, and a few young girls who are your especial  friends.”

When Amy received Mrs. Barlow’s note the next day she was thrown into a state of great excitement.

“There,” said Mrs. Redmond, when she showed it to her, “you see that you were not altogether forgotten. Mrs. Barlow says, I see, that Brenda is coming to see you as soon as she returns. I hope that you will be a little more cheerful than you have been lately.”

“Oh, yes,—oh, yes, indeed,” replied Amy; “but do you think I can go to the wedding? What can I wear?”

Mrs. Redmond looked serious for a moment. “That is a question rather hard to answer. We have so little time for preparation, and you are so nearly grown-up now,  Amy, that I should not care to have you go among  strangers unless— Well, we ’ll see. You know this summer we have very little to spend, and it does not seem  as if it ought to be spent for a dress that you might wear  only once or twice before it was outgrown.”

“I know it, mamma; but still—” There was a decided shadow on Amy’s brow.

“But still,” continued her mother, smiling, “I think