"Well, don't mention anything about it to the other girls; it would only make their mothers nervous. Your box shall be left in Harlingden this afternoon, when the second batch of luggage goes. I suppose you can walk to your cousin's house. They'll be expecting you?"
"Oh, yes! Mother would tell them what time I am coming."
Avelyn went back to the Cowslip Room and began to put her various possessions into her box. The packing was a stale business, without any heart in it. It is horrible to be obliged to pay a visit when you don't want to go. In spite of Miss Thompson's injunctions, she could not help confiding her ill news to her room-mates. It was impossible to keep her woes bottled up in her own breast. She wanted sympathy badly.
"Hard luck!" said Laura.
"Beastly not to be going home!" agreed Janet.
"Poor old sport! I'll send you some picture post cards," consoled Ethelberga.
"Suppose you break out in spots at your cousin's?" suggested Irma.
This was a new view of the case that had not before occurred to Avelyn.
"I'd welcome them!" she declared. "I'd get Cousin Lilia to put me in an ambulance and pack me off home."
"Suppose they wouldn't? They might say it was too far, and send you to the fever hospital instead."