The next trolley brought Shirley and George, and again the mother was amazed to find how altogether free and easy seemed to be the relation between all these young people.
She gave a keen look at Shirley, and then another at her son, but saw nothing which gave her uneasiness. The girl was unconscious as a rose, and sweet and gracious to the stranger guests as if she had been in society all her life. She slipped away at once to remove her hat, and when she came back her hair was brushed, and she looked as fresh as a flower in her clean white ruffled blouse. The older woman could not take her eyes from her face. What a charming girl to be set among all this shabbiness! For by this time her discriminating eyes had discovered that everything--literally _every_thing was shabby. Who were these people, and how did they happen to get put here? The baby was ravishingly beautiful, the girls were charming, and the boys looked like splendid, manly fellows. The mother was a product of culture and refinement. Not one word or action had shown that she knew her surroundings were shabby. She might have been mistress of a palace for aught she showed of consciousness of the pitiful poverty about her. It was as if she were just dropped down for the day in a stray barn and making a palace out of it while she stayed.
Unconsciously the woman of the world lingered longer than was her wont in making calls. She liked the atmosphere, and was strangely interested by them all.
"I wish you would come and see me," she said cordially as she rose at last to go, and she said it as if she meant it,--as if she lived right around the corner and not twenty-two miles away,--as if she really wanted her to come, and not as if this other woman lived in a barn at all.
"Good old sport!" commented her son in his heart as he listened. He had known she must see their worth, and yet he had been strangely afraid.
Mrs. Hollister received the invitation with a flush of pleasure.
"Thank you," she answered graciously, "I'm afraid not. I seldom go anywhere any more. But I've been very glad to have had this call from you. It will be a pleasure to think about. Come sometime again when you are out this way. Your son has been most kind. I cannot find words to express my thanks."
"Has he?" and his mother looked questioningly at her son. "Well, I'm very glad----"
"Yes, and Elizabeth! She is a dear sweet girl, and we all love her!"