a minute, with a peculiar expression in her black eyes she turned to
Nyoda and said respectfully that Mrs. McClure was giving a fancy dress
ball that night and, as several of the invited guests had been
prevented from coming at the last moment, which would spoil the number
for a certain march figure she had planned, she wanted to know if we
would mind attending the ball in their places. She begged us to excuse
her for not coming in to speak to us herself, but she was in the hands
of her hair-dresser.

Would we mind attending the ball! Did things ever happen to other
people the way they happened to us? And such a ball as the McClures
would give would be like a page out of the Arabian Nights to us, who
knew nothing of high society.

"But what could we wear?" asked Sahwah, always the first to come to
earth and see the practical side of the question.

Carrie flashed her a sparkling look from her black eyes, giggled, and
then shifted her gaze to Agnes, whom she watched narrowly. Agnes looked
indifferent, both at her and at us. The stony expression on Agnes's
face began to puzzle me; I wondered if there was any mystery about her.
Carrie finally took her eyes from Agnes's face and allowed them to
travel around the room to where our touring suits hung up to dry. "The
automobile suits," she suggested respectfully, "and the veils, and the
goggles--You could masque as a party of tourists. The clothes are quite
dry."

Our spirits revived again, for the thought that we might have to miss
this grand opportunity of witnessing a gorgeous spectacle because we
had nothing to wear had sent our hearts down into our shoes.