She wouldn’t ride that afternoon; Boyd would probably have Victor—she wished General Trent knew how seldom Alec had the use of his own horse nowadays; she and Alec would go for a walk, and—
“Elizabeth!” Miss Fellows said, “I am afraid that you are not attending to the matter in hand.”
“But I’m going to, really and truly!” Blue Bonnet promised, with an earnestness not all for Miss Fellows. “Mind you do,” she told herself, “or there won’t be any time for walking this afternoon.”
“No, I can’t go home with you!” she assured Kitty after school. “I can’t go home with any of you girls! Yes, there is something on, Little Miss Why; but I am not going to tell you what it is.”
Kitty looked impatient; “You’re the greatest girl for wrapping yourself up in mysteries!”
“I’m not!” Blue Bonnet answered; “but little girls mustn’t ask impertinent questions; good-bye, I’ll see you to-morrow morning.”
“Or before—perhaps,” Kitty retorted. “As I take the notion.”
Blue Bonnet found Alec reading on the side piazza; he was looking troubled about something, she told herself. “If you don’t mind, I would like to follow our brook this afternoon,” she said.
“And I am to follow you?”
“It would be more sociable if we kept together.”