cream and lipstick around in the most unexpected places, but of course she couldn’t say no, and really it wasn’t in Rae’s sunny nature to be cool or disagreeable to anyone, much as she might dislike them. “I was just about to lie down and take a little nap, so help yourself.”
“How sweet of you,” said Minnie condescendingly. “Nice you got here in time to choose the best room!” Minnie smiled her old catty smile.
“Oh,” said Rae laughing, “I didn’t choose my room. This is where Thelma brought me. This is where she said Sydney wanted me to be.”
“Yes,” said Minnie with a toss of her head, “you always were one of her favorites! Well, it’s all right of course, even if I am a relative. A relative always expects to take second place! And of course she didn’t know I was coming. She’ll be awfully surprised when she finds it out. Say, do you happen to know who is to be here tonight?”
Minnie dropped nonchalantly down on the edge of the bed, one shabby slipper clacking against the hardwood floor as she swung her foot idly.
“Why, no, I don’t know that I do,” said Rae, standing by the bureau and arranging some handkerchiefs and gloves and ribbons in the top drawer. “I suppose just the bridesmaids and ushers, don’t you?”
“Well, likely,” said Minnie, as if she were conversant with all of the bride’s plans. “But I was wondering who they all are. Really I did feel a bit hurt that she didn’t ask me, as close as we’ve always been. Who are the ushers? I suppose they’re friends of the groom. I don’t know him very well. Syd was awfully secret about it all. She never dropped a hint. I was simply amazed when I found she was marrying a western man. So silly of her when she has such a nice group of friends in the east, and some of the boys were just dandy, don’t you think? But who are these people tonight? Do I know them all? I suppose the girls are just the old crowd, aren’t they? Carey Carewe, Sue Richards, Lou McHale, Bets Patterson, Fran Ferrin and Pat Nicholson. What she ever saw in them I never understood, but Syd was always that way, whom she liked she liked, no matter who or what they were. But who are the fellows? I’m simply dying to know.”
Rae looked thoughtful. She didn’t exactly like the role she was being forced to play, telling about arrangements to this girl whom she knew Sydney did not want to take into her confidence. But what could she do?
“Well, I’m not sure about them all,” she said slowly. “There’ll be Steve and Curlin Grant, I suppose——”
“Steve’s all right,” conceded Minnie with a kind of contempt in her tone, “but that Curlin I can’t abide!”
“What’s the matter with Curlin?” asked Rae in an amused tone.
“Why, he has simply no appreciation of us girls. No female consciousness, perhaps I should say.”
Suddenly Rae laughed an amused little ripple.
“What on earth do you mean by that, Minnie? It sounds rather horrid to me. Remember the Grants are among our best friends.”
“Oh, well, I didn’t mean anything disparaging exactly,” said Minnie with a shrug. “I simply meant that Curlin never senses that a girl is any different from a man. You happen to get Curlin to talk to and he never even looks at you, nor notices what you have on nor anything, just discusses any old topic as if you were a fella.”
“Why, I think that’s lovely!” said Rae. “I always feel honored to talk to Curlin. He never tries to be frivolous the way some men do. He acts as if you had a brain and as if you were a real person.”
“Well I can’t be bothered talking politics and what I think of the situation in Europe. If I happen to have to talk to him tonight, ten to one he’ll ask me about which side I think is going to win, and if he does I shall simply shriek, I know I shall. Say, Rae, what is that dress I saw hanging in the closet? Is it yours? Why did you close the door so quickly? I want to see it. Say, that’s a cute little number. I’m quite taken with that. A bit somber, don’t you think, but that’s the style today. Say, I think I’ll wear that tonight. You don’t mind, do you? I have an idea a dress like that might please the masculine sensibility. I think I’ll try it.”
“Sorry!” said Rae Silverthorn, shutting the closet door with a snap. “I shall need it myself.”
“Oh, that’s all right,” laughed Minnie, “I’ve got plenty of gorgeous things along. You can have your choice!”
“Thank you,” said Rae coolly, “I was brought up not to borrow garments. Besides my brother picked this out for me and I wouldn’t care to have anybody else wear it.”
Rae flung herself down on the bed wearily and yawned wishing with all her heart she hadn’t come so early.
Minnie laughed mockingly.
“Try and stop me!” she said brightly. “Now, I’m going in and take a hot bath. I just adore lying in hot water, don’t you? And then I’ll come out and we’ll get dressed together. Take you nap and when you wake up I’ll bring an armful of my things and you can have your choice. There’s a duck of an orange tulle, only one sleeve is torn out. You’d have to mend it, but it’s adorable. Ta-ta till I get my bath!” and Minnie slid into the bathroom and snapped the bolt.
McRae Silverthorn lay on the bed filled with wrathy indignation and for an instant couldn’t get her brain to function rightly. Her dress, her lovely dress! To have it defamed by that girl’s touch! To have it handled and discussed, and tried on perhaps! She could not bear it! She would not! But what could she do? Minnie, when she started out to do a thing, generally succeeded in doing it, all the more when she saw it was distasteful to someone. Rae knew Minnie had always been jealous of her friendship with Sydney.
Suddenly she heart the bolt of the bathroom slide back with a snap and the door was opened a crack.
“How old is your brother?” Minnie asked through the crack.
Rae’s mouth twinkled with quick amusement, but she put on a lazy voice as she answered, “How old? Oh, a few years older than I am!”
“And he picked out a dress for you? Well, he must have a girl somewhere who works in a store and he hired her to do it. No man has that good taste!”
Then she slammed the door shut again and shot the bolt.
By this time Rae was on her feet, her eyes blazing angrily.
“I won’t stand it!” she said to herself. “I won’t!”
Then she went into action. Softly she opened the bureau drawers and swept into a bundle the neat piles of garments she had just laid in them so carefully. She stepped to the closet, opening the door most cautiously. She opened her suitcase quietly and laid the garments in swiftly and noiselessly, and then as soon as she heard the water beginning to run in the tub she slipped that taffeta dress of its silken hanger, and onto the hanger in her new suitcase. Then the other dresses, a pastel pink sports dress, a skirt and sweater and white silk blouse, and a little printed silk affair, bright as the springtime. It was the work of but a moment to slip them on the hangers that belonged in the suitcase, to smooth down the skirts, and press the spring that folded them neatly and safely into place! Then her slippers, another pair of shoes. There wouldn’t be anything safe if Minnie got started being disagreeable, and she had seen Minnie disagreeable several times in her life. She surveyed the closet carefully, conscious that the moments were going by rapidly. The water had stopped running
