Lilian kissed her. She wondered why her mother’s eyes rested on her at times with that unfathomable look and the lips would move, then suddenly compress.
So she walked down past the summer house where the Virginia creeper was flaunting long scarlet branches in the wind.
“Oh, Miss Boyd!”
She turned. Alice Nevins ran out. Her face was red and swollen with weeping.
“Oh, what is the matter?”
“Let me come with you? Oh, I’m so homesick, and I just hate some of the girls. They laugh when I blunder. I don’t know things. I just hate school! Papa would send me here. Mamma begged to take me abroad. I’m sure I could have learned a great many things. People say travel is an education. I hate to study books. Do you really love it?”
“Yes, very much, and for all it brings to you. Were you never at school before?”
“Only a little. Then I had a governess. You see, I was growing fast and mamma thought I oughtn’t study. She wasn’t very well and papa wanted to take her somewhere in Italy, and he sent me here, and some of the girls do make fun of me. Can’t you feel it when they are laughing at you?”
Lilian flushed. “I try to think of something else. They are not really worth minding.”
“I know I’m not pretty. Oh, I wish I were! And you have such a lovely complexion. How is it made up?”