With this, all the girls looked more questioning than ever and Rhoda protested, “But Nan, you can’t be mysterious about a trip abroad. We simply couldn’t stand it!” This was unusual coming from the generally quiet Rhoda and for a moment they all looked at her. Her face flushed slightly. The words sounded strange even to her. Could she be forgetting those southern manners that always made her so mindful of others’ feelings? Now, as she saw the expression on Nan’s face and then looked at Bess, she guessed at Nan’s reasons for wishing to delay talk of the European trip. With her usual tact, she changed the subject entirely.
“Have any of you made any New Year’s resolutions?” she asked.
Almost as quick as Rhoda to sense the reason for Nan’s unwillingness to talk, Grace answered the question.
“I’ve thought of a million things I ought to resolve to do, but it’s so discouraging. I never seem to be able to keep any of my resolutions.”
Nan smiled her thanks to both of the girls, and then turned to Bess. “There’s one resolution we all ought to make,” she said.
“What’s that?” Bess asked as she tried to guess what fault they all had in common.
“To be nicer to Linda Riggs when we go back to school.”
“Nicer to Linda Riggs!” Bess exploded. “Why, if I make any resolution at all about that girl, it will be to utterly ignore her when I get back! Nicer to Linda Riggs! Why, Nan Sherwood, and after all she has done to you! If I had her here this minute I’d like to slap her snobbish face. Just because her father happens to own a railroad, she thinks that she owns the world.”
“Why, Bess!” Nan exclaimed. “Be quiet! There’s no point in your talking that way about her, no matter what she does. If you don’t keep quiet, I’ll think you are as bad as she.”
“Maybe so,” Bess half admitted. “Just the same, I wish she wasn’t coming back to school at all. I don’t think she should be allowed to after causing that explosion. She might have killed us all.”