“Nan, tell me,” she urged. “Don’t sit there looking as though the bottom had dropped out of everything. What’s happened?”
“Oh, don’t be silly,” Nan forced a smile, “I just received a letter from home and it made me homesick. That’s all.”
“You homesick!” Bess didn’t believe a word of it.
“Yes,” Nan reiterated rather crossly, “I began to think how far away we are going and how seldom it is we see our parents these days. It made me sad for a while.”
Bess accepted the explanation without further comment. She knew that it wasn’t altogether true, just as she knew that it would be utterly impossible to drag the real facts from Nan at the moment. However, she determined not to forget the incident. But despite her resolve, it was not until several weeks later when they were on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean that the subject was reopened. Then it was not Bess who reopened it, but a set of very peculiar circumstances.
Now, to further divert Bess’ attention, Nan put her letter away, most carefully, and began to busy herself about the room. So, they were both sorting out their belongings when Grace broke in on them.
“What do you think?” She was breathless with excitement for she had run all the way from the mail boxes where she had read the letter she was now waving in her hand, “I’ve just had a letter from home and mother and dad say that you should all come to Chicago with me for a few days during the holidays.
“They say that it is almost necessary,” she continued as she noted the doubtful look on Nan’s face and Bess’ too. “Because you can take care of your passports and visas much easier there than from Freeling.
“Mother says further,” and Grace turned to her letter to read directly from that,
“‘Dad and I have at last given Walter our consent to take his car along with him. He wants to so much! We feel that since it might be the only time he ever makes the trip that we will let him do as he wishes in so far as possible. So you and the girls may plan on taking a few side trips to Stratford-on-Avon, Canterbury, Eton, Windsor, and wherever else you have a mind to go by auto—that is, and this always holds true, if Dr. Prescott is willing. You are to be in her hands entirely, you know.