Cynthia laughed again. “I never saw girls like you two before,” she said. “Go ahead, I’ll do whatever you say. I’m in your hands.”
Beth secretly thought that Cynthia had made a very honest confession in this statement. She seemed perfectly satisfied to allow her friends to go ahead and plan for her.
They went upstairs to the saloon deck to breakfast, and had a very pleasant meal, despite the gloominess of the day. Beth noted that Cynthia had surely been well brought up. She was quite used to good form in table manners. She was not on her guard against mistakes; the proper table etiquette was as natural to this runaway girl as breathing.
The Water Wagtail plodded up the river through the thick mist all the forenoon, stopping now and then at misty landings. But at noon the weather cleared suddenly and then the beauty of the banks was revealed to Beth Baldwin, who had never before been so far from Hudsonvale.
During the forenoon two girls came aboard the steamboat whom Molly Granger introduced to Beth. They were Stella Price and Lil Browne.
“Notice the ‘e,’ please, at the end of Lil’s name,” said the jolly girl. “That is why she is a ‘Brownie’—and we all call her that, don’t we, Brownie?”
“Of course we do, Jolly Molly,” returned the new girl, laughing.
So Beth learned that, quite in keeping with her language and character, her new chum was known by everybody at Rivercliff as “Jolly Molly” Granger.
Cynthia Fogg stayed in the stateroom most of the day. She did not put herself forward or try to take advantage of the other girls’ consideration for her. She kept to herself, either from a feeling that she was not of the class of these girls going to Rivercliff to school, or because—because——
“Can it be that she feels herself above us?” thought the puzzled Beth.