“Who is she?” asked the puzzled Beth.
“Miss Hammersly’s mother. And such a dear! She is really the housekeeper and general manager—and, oh! so particular! No end! But she’s a jolly old dear, at that.”
Beth saw that this girl overworked at least one word in the English language. But it was impossible to look at her without thinking of that very word. She was jolly, indeed.
Naturally, Beth Baldwin was greatly interested in this, the first of her future schoolmates whom she met and not a little curious about her. She learned at once that Molly Granger had been to Rivercliff for two years already, having entered what Miss Hammersly called the “primary department.”
“But I shall be a full-fledged first-grade with you ‘freshies’ this fall. I shall be in your classes,” she said cheerfully. “I believe I am going to like you a lot, Beth. And that’s more than I can say for some of the girls who have been with me as ‘primes’ and now will be in our grade too. There’s Maude Grimshaw, for instance. That girl would try the patience of a Jobess.”
“A what?” gasped Beth.
“A Jobess. Female for Job. Isn’t that right?” asked Molly, her eyes dancing.
Beth laughed. Then she said suddenly:
“Oh, wait!” and, seizing some more of the flowers from Mrs. Euphemia Haven’s garden, she darted out of the stateroom. She had been watching for several moments a girl who stood in plain view in the cabin and who had been staring at the flowers.
She was a slim, freckled girl, rather oddly dressed, Beth thought; but her big, dark eyes expressed a longing for the flowers that could not be mistaken.