“I will,” cried Mollie.  “I’d dearly love to see the shops.  We don’t have any big stores in Kingsbridge.”

“Is there anything I can get for you, girls?” Harriet asked.

Ruth called her cousin over in the corner.  “Will you please order flowers for us to-morrow night!” Ruth requested.  “Father told me to be sure to get flowers whenever we wanted them.”

“Lucky Ruth!” sighed Harriet.  “I wish I had such a rich and generous father as you have!”

“What can we wear to the President’s reception to-morrow, Bab?” Mollie whispered in her sister’s ear, while Harriet and Ruth were having their conference.

Bab thought for a moment.  “You can wear the corn-colored frock you wore to dinner with the Princess Sophia at Palm Beach.  It is awfully pretty, and you have never worn it since.”

“That old thing!” cried Mollie, pouting.

“Suppose you get some pale yellow ribbons, Mollie, and I will make you a new sash and a bow for your hair,” Bab suggested.

Pretty Mollie frowned.  “All right,” she agreed.

Harriet and Mollie did not go at once to the shops.  They drove first to Harriet’s dressmaker, the most fashionable in Washington.

“I must try on a little frock,” Harriet explained.  “We can do our shopping afterwards.  I want you to see a beautiful coat I am having made, from a Chinese crepe shawl the Chinese Minister’s wife gave me.”

Madame Louise, the head of the dressmaking establishment, came in to attend to Harriet.  The new coat was in a wonderful shade of apricot, lined with satin and embroidered in nearly every color of silk.

“Oh, Harriet, how lovely!” Mollie exclaimed.

“Yes, isn’t it?” Harriet agreed.  “But I really ought not to have had this coat made up.  It has cost almost as much as though I had bought it outright.  And I don’t need it.  I hope you have not made my dress very expensive, Madame.  I told you to get me up a simple frock.”

“Ah, but Miss Hamlin, the simple frocks cost as much as the fancy ones,” argued the dressmaker.  “This little gown is made of the best satin and lace.  But how charming is the effect.”

Mollie echoed the dressmaker’s verdict as she gazed at Harriet with admiring eyes.  Harriet’s gown was white satin.  Her black hair and great dusky eyes looked darker from the contrast and her skin even more startlingly fair.

Harriet could not help a little smile of vanity as she saw herself in the long mirror in the fitting room.

“Be sure to send these things home by to-morrow, Madame Louise,” she demanded.  “Father and I are going to take our guests to one of the President’s receptions and I want to wear this gown.”

Mollie gave a little impatient sigh.

“What is the matter, Mollie?” inquired Harriet, seeing that her little friend looked tired and unhappy.  “I am awfully sorry to have kept you waiting like this.  It is a bore to watch other people try on their clothes.  I will come with you directly.”