People were already drifting away from the pier. “Hugh and Victor are waiting to take us to Camp in the motor boat,” explained Nancy. “I’ll just introduce you to the Round Robin before we start. Don’t you think we have a nice yell? There are six of us, you see; you will make the seventh girl. The boys are Associates. Mother and the Twins are Honorary.”
Nancy chattered so fast that the newcomer was quite bewildered. Perhaps it was the best way to get over an awkward moment, for the Club was oddly tongue-tied. They did not all know one another very well as yet, the summer being so young. They were not awed by the Golden Girl; but they did not like the way she looked at them. “How queer these people are.” She seemed to be thinking. “I knew they would be.” She said nothing, however, and perhaps they mistook her real thoughts.
Nancy began her introduction, putting her arm about Cicely’s shoulders. “This is my cousin Cicely Vane of England,” she said.
“How do you do?” said Cicely prettily. Anne nodded coldly as the name of each girl was given.
“This is Gilda Bétemps, who was born in Belgium,” went on Nancy, drawing forward the short, round girl whose pleasant face was beaming. “She doesn’t speak English very easily yet. But she is getting on. She is going to be an American all the rest of her life.”
“I gave some money for the Belgian children, and a lot of old clothes,” said Anne, staring at Gilda with some interest. “What a dreadful thing to say!” inwardly commented the other girls. But Gilda only smiled.
“And this,” Nancy indicated the brunette of the group, “is Norma Sonnino, who is going to be a great musician some day, like her grandfather. She sings like a—like a round robin!”
Norma blushed and rolled her eyes. “Nancy is always laughing at me,” she said, showing dazzling white teeth. “Like a round robin indeed!”
“Well, I don’t know anybody who can sing better than the round robin we named our camp for; the fellow who sings on top of the spruce tree every morning—‘Get up, get up! Get uppity up!’ And his sunset song, Norma!”
“Grazie tante!” said Norma, shrugging her shoulders, but smiling too.