“What are you saying?” asked Dorothy, with a momentary alarm coming into her eyes.
“Oh, I was just telling mother and Sab that you had skipped by the light of the noon, with the captain of the ‘Consternation,’ who was a jolly old bachelor last night, but may be a married man to-day if my suspicions are correct. Oh, Dorothy, must I go to the ball in a dress of print?”
The sewing girl bent an affectionate look on the impulsive Katherine.
“Kate, dear,” she said, “you shall wear the grandest ball dress that ever was seen in Bar Harbor.”
“How dare you call my sister Kate, and talk such nonsense?” demanded Sabina.
“I shall always call you Miss Kempt, and now, if I have your permission, I will sit down. I am tired.”
“Yes, and hungry, too,” cried Katherine. “What shall I get you, Dorothy? This is all cold.”
“Thank you, I am not in the least hungry.”
“Yes, I would,” she said, “and some bread and butter.”
“Well, I declare!” ejaculated Sabina with a gasp, drawing herself together, as if the bottom had fallen out of the social fabric.
Mrs. Captain Kempt folded her hands one over the other and put on a look of patient resignation, as one who finds all the old landmarks swept away from before her.
“Is there anything else we can get for you?” asked Sabina icily.
“Yes,” replied Dorothy, with serene confidence, “I should be very much obliged if Captain Kempt would obtain for me a card of invitation to the ball on the ‘Consternation.’”
“Really!” gasped Sabina, “and may not my mother supplement my father’s efforts by providing you with a ball dress for the occasion?”
“I could not think of troubling her, Miss Kempt. Some of my customers have flattered me by saying that my taste in dress is artistic, and that my designs, if better known, might almost set a fashion in a small way, so I shall look after my costume myself; but if Mrs. Captain Kempt were kind enough to allow me to attend the ball under her care, I should be very grateful for it.”
“How admirable! And is there nothing that I can do to forward your ambitions, Miss Amhurst?”
“I am going to the ball merely as a looker-on, and perhaps you might smile at me as you pass by with your different partners, so that people would say I was an acquaintance of yours.”