“Well--how was I to know? Everything these girls wear looks as if it would run into a heap o’ money.”
“So it does. Nevertheless, five hundred dollars should give us a pretty good running start! Here we are, Edina! Come along!”
There was a riotous exodus from the bus, and in the general confusion Billie nearly lost sight of Edina. She found her finally on the edge of the crowd, clinging to her pocketbook and looking scared.
“Come along,” said Billie. “I’ve already fixed things with Miss Arbuckle. We’re to meet the girls at the Busy Bee at twelve o’clock sharp. Until then, our time’s our own.”
When they reached the center of town, Billie paused and looked about her thoughtfully. Then her eyes came back from their tour of investigation and rested musingly on her protégé.
“It must have been fate that made us stop before this barber shop,” she dimpled. “Come inside, Edina. You are going to have your hair cut!”
Edina protested. She shied like a skittish pony at the barrier. But Billie had her way.
“Either you do as I say or you don’t,” cried Billie sternly. “Do you want to go back to Three Towers Hall _as you are_?”
Like a prisoner marching to execution, she entered the barber shop.
Edina Tooker’s hair, released from the hard knot into which she had bound it at the back of her head, proved to be luxuriant and soft to the touch. The barber, a dark-skinned, effusive little fellow, was charmed with the color and texture.
“It is a long day since I have seen such a head of hair. And now it must be cut off, shorn like the wool of a sheep. Eh, well, it is the fashion. These ladies,” with a twinkling glance at Billie, “must be in the fashion or die, is it not?”
The barber took up a pair of gleaming shears. Edina’s eyes met Billie’s in an agonized look of appeal.
Billie smiled reassuringly, but remained adamant.
“She is the boyish type, don’t you think?” she said, cajoling the barber. “It seems to me her hair would look nice short, quite short, and maybe tucked behind the ear on the left side.”
“Leave it to me,” returned the little dark man with a flourish of the shears. “I will make her ravissant. So she will not know herself. Now then! Attend!”
At the first rip of the shears through her heavy tresses, Edina shrank deep into her seat and shut her eyes tight. She did not open them again until the barber announced in a pleased tone that all was finished.