Two Little Women on a Holiday   By: Carolyn Wells (1862-1942)

BY

CAROLYN WELLS Author Of The Patty Books, The Marjorie Books, Two Little Women Series, Etc.

FRONTISPIECE BY E. C. CASWELL

Made in the United States of America 1917

TO MY VERY DEAR CHILD FRIEND

FRANCES ALTHEA SPRAGUE

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I A WONDERFUL PLAN

II A FAVOURABLE DECISION

III THE ARRIVAL

IV A MERRY QUARTETTE

V GOING ABOUT

VI A MATINEE IDOL

VII GREAT PREPARATIONS

VIII THE CALLER

IX FINE FEATHERS

X A SKATING PARTY

XI THE COLLECTIONS

XII THE LOST JEWEL

XIII SUSPICIONS

XIV AT THE TEA ROOM

XV DOLLY'S RIDE

XVI WAS IT ALICIA?

XVII A CLEVER IDEA

XVIII FOUR CELEBRATIONS

XIX ALICIA'S SECRET

XX UNCLE JEFF'S FOUR FRIENDS

CHAPTER I

A WONDERFUL PLAN

"Hello, Dolly," said Dotty Rose, over the telephone.

"Hello, Dot," responded Dolly Fayre. "What you want?"

"Oh! I can't tell you this way. Come on over, just as quick as you can."

"But I haven't finished my Algebra, and it's nearly dinner time, anyway."

"No it isn't, and no matter if it is. Come on, I tell you! You'd come fast enough if you knew what it's about!"

"Tell me, then."

"I say I can't, over the telephone. Oh, Dolly, come on, and stop fussing!"

The telephone receiver at Dotty's end of the wire was hung up with a click, and Dolly began to waggle her receiver hook in hope of getting Dotty back. But there was no response, so Dolly rose and went for her coat. Flinging it round her, and not stopping to get a hat, she ran next door to Dotty Rose's house.

It was mid January, and the six o'clock darkness was lighted only by the street lights. Flying across the two lawns that divided the houses, Dolly found Dotty awaiting her at the side door.

"Hurry up in, Doll," she cried, eagerly, "the greatest thing you ever heard! Oh, the very greatest! If you only CAN! Oh, if you ONLY can!"

"Can what? Do tell me what you're talking about." Dolly tossed her coat on the hall rack, and followed Dotty into the Roses' living room. There she found Dotty's parents and also Bernice Forbes and her father. What could such a gathering mean? Dolly began to think of school happenings; had she cut up any mischievous pranks or inadvertently done anything wrong? What else could bring Mr. Forbes to the Roses' on what was very evidently an important errand? For all present were eagerly interested, that much was clear. Mr. and Mrs. Rose were smiling, yet shaking their heads in uncertainty; Bernice was flushed and excited; and Mr. Forbes himself was apparently trying to persuade them to something he was proposing.

This much Dolly gathered before she heard a word of the discussion. Then Mrs. Rose said, "Here's Dolly Fayre. You tell her about it, Mr. Forbes."

"Oh, let me tell her," cried Bernice.

"No," said Mr. Rose, "let her hear it first from your father. You girls can chatter afterward."

So Mr. Forbes spoke. "My dear child," he said to Dolly, "my Bernice is invited to spend a week with her uncle, in New York City. She is privileged to ask you two girls to accompany her if you care to."

Dolly listened, without quite grasping the idea. She was slow of thought, though far from stupid. And this was such a sudden and startling suggestion that she couldn't quite take it in.

"Go to New York, for a week. Oh, I couldn't. I have to go to school."

Mrs. Rose smiled. "That's just the trouble, Dolly. Dot has to go to school, too, at least, she ought to. Bernice, likewise. But this invitation is so delightful and so unusual, that I'm thinking you three girls ought to take advantage of it. The question is, what will your parents say?"

"Oh, they'll never let me go!" exclaimed Dolly, decidedly. "They don't want anything to interfere with my lessons."