Mollie slipped quietly into a corner, and was waiting by Harriet’s side, when Harriet called the other girls to hurry up the broad stairs to the vestibule above, where the guests were forming in line to enter the reception room.

Barbara, Ruth and Grace gave little gasps of astonishment when they first beheld Mollie.  If little Mollie Thurston’s heart was heavy within her on this brilliant occasion, she held her pretty head very high.  The worry and excitement had given her a slight fever; her cheeks were a deep carmine and her eyes glittered brightly.

“Why, Mollie!  What a vision you are!” exclaimed Ruth and Grace together.  “Where did you get that wonderful gown?  You have been saving it to surprise us to-night, haven’t you?”

But Bab did not say a single word.  She only looked at Mollie, her face paling a little with surprise and curiosity.  How had Mollie come by a gown that was more beautiful than anything Bab had ever seen her sister wear?  Barbara knew Mollie had not had the gown when they left home together, for she had packed her sister’s trunk for her.  But this was not the time to ask questions.  Bab’s mind was divided between the wonder and delight she felt at the scene before her, and amazement at Mollie’s secret.  “I do hope,” she thought, as she followed Mr. Hamlin up the steps, “that Mollie has not borrowed that gown of Harriet.  But no; it fits her much too well.  Some one must have given it to her as a present and she has kept the secret until to-night to surprise me.”

The “Automobile Girls” stood behind Mr. Hamlin and Harriet in the great vestibule just outside the famous Blue Room of the White House, where the President and his wife were waiting to receive their guests.  The line was moving forward so slowly that the girls had a chance to look about them.  Never had any one of them beheld such a beautiful spectacle.  Of course the “Automobile Girls” had been present at a number of receptions during their brief social careers, but for the first time to-night they saw men in other than ordinary evening dress.  The diplomats from other countries wore their superb court costumes with the insignia of their rank.  The American Army and Navy officers had on their bright full dress uniforms.

Bab thought the Russian Ambassador the most superb looking man she had ever seen, and Mollie blushed when Lieutenant Elmer Wilson bowed gallantly to her across the length of the hall.

When the girls first took up their positions in the line, they believed they would never grow weary of looking about them.  But by and by, as they waited and the number of people ahead of them only slowly decreased, they grew tired.

A girl passed by Barbara and smiled.  It was Marjorie Moore.  She was not going to try to shake hands with the President.  She had a note book and a pencil in her hand and was evidently bent on business.  Barbara also caught a glimpse of Peter Dillon, but he did not come up to speak to them.