At last the cards were out. Diffident Bettie dropped them, envelope and all, on the extended plate; but Jean deftly seized the envelope and shook out the cards. Next followed a most unhappy moment. Simmons was evidently expecting them to do _something_, they hadn't the remotest idea what.
Then, to their great relief, there was a sudden "swish" of silken skirts, a flash of scarlet and lively Henrietta, who had slid down the broad banister, was greeting them warmly.
"Grandmother's out," said she. "Come up to my room and have a real visit before she gets back. Simmons, just toddle down to the lower regions for some fruit and anything else you can find; send them up to my room."
Something very like a smile flitted across Simmons's wooden countenance. Perhaps it amused him to be ordered to "toddle."
"Do you like my new gown?" queried Henrietta, leading the way upstairs and flirting her accordion-pleated skirts in graceful fashion. "It's my dinner dress. I have to dress for dinner every night--such a fuss for just two of us. Come in here--this is my sitting-room."
"How very odd," said Jean, finding her voice at last.
"Isn't it?" laughed Henrietta, shaking her brown curls. She wore them tied back with two enormous black bows. "Grandmother's a mixture of everything, you know--French, English, New York Dutch--and her furniture shows it. Lots of it came from Europe and Father picked up things in India and China--such a jolly dad as he is. That's why this place is such a jumble."
"I like it," declared Jean. "It looks interesting--as if there were lovely stories in it."
"There are," said Henrietta, drawing aside a heavy, silken curtain, "and I keep making new ones to fit. This is my bedroom, this next one is my dressing-room and this is my bath."
"Ugh!" shuddered Mabel, "do you take shower baths?"
"What a lovely dressing table!" exclaimed Bettie, peering into the oval mirror and smiling into her own dark eyes. "I never saw such pretty things, even in a catalogue."
"It's French," said Henrietta, "but all those little jeweled boxes came from Calcutta--Father just loves to buy little boxes with inlaid tops. Oh, here's Greta, with things to eat." Henrietta hastily swept her belongings from a dainty little table and the smiling maid deposited the heavy tray.