When they reached their respective homes, the girls went into their houses without a parting word of good-night to each other.
CHAPTER XII
MAD AND MEASLES
The next day was Saturday, and the Two D’s had planned to spend the morning at Treasure House, studying first, and afterward arranging for a luncheon they were going to have there the next Saturday.
They intended to ask four girls and have a lovely party, but now the very thought of it brought the tears to Dolly’s eyes. She was in her room, wondering whether to go over to Treasure House or to wait for some word from Dotty. They had never had a real quarrel before and Dolly didn’t know quite how to manage it. So she watched from her window to see if Dot would go over. And Dotty did. Soon Dolly saw her walking along the path, her head up, singing a little song, and then she unlocked the door of Treasure House and went in.
So Dolly followed, and went in to find that Dotty had started a good fire, and was sitting at her desk, studying.
Dolly looked at Dotty and Dotty looked at Dolly, but neither spoke. Dolly thought Dotty looked spiteful and Dotty thought Dolly looked stubborn. And they both did look so, and they felt so.
Dolly threw off her coat, laid another log on the blazing fire, and sat down at her desk to study.
Silence reigned and reigned with such absolute monarchy that each girl felt as if she should scream. Perhaps you know the tension of such a situation. Both sat still, until arms and legs felt rigid, faces were strained, and hearts beat as if they would burst. Yet, neither felt she could speak. That would be a humiliating admission of being in the wrong, which neither was willing to make.
Turned slightly away from each other, they were not mutually visible, yet each felt that the other knew every move she made.
Dolly was almost ready to cry, her neck felt so stiff and her arm so cramped. She moved a trifle, and the sensation was as if she had made a disturbance in church. She at once became motionless again, her burning face showing her embarrassed self-consciousness.