“Of course. I’ll fix the room, Mother, you needn’t give it a thought.”
“You’re a great help, Trude,” said Mrs. Fayre, smiling at her elder daughter.
Meantime the younger daughter of the house of Fayre was struggling with her emotions. She didn’t know whether to be sorry or glad.
And before she had time to decide, Dotty arrived.
“Isn’t this great?” she exclaimed in a state of excitement. “It’s awful kind of you, Mrs. Fayre, to take me in, but you see, I’d hate so to be out of school just now. It’s near examinations, and I do want to pass.”
“We’ll pass you,” said Mr. Fayre. “We’ll put you through, with bells on! But I expect you Two D’s will chatter and giggle all the time instead of studying.”
“Oh, no, we won’t,” and from the cold smile Dotty flashed at her, Dolly understood the feud was as desperate as ever, but the elders were to be kept in ignorance of it. For a feud suspected by parents is as good as finished. No real feud can exist in the scathing beams of grown people’s ridicule.
So Dolly smiled coldly in return, and said, “No, indeed,” in a tone that ought not to have deceived a feeble-minded jellyfish.
Nor did it deceive Trudy. “Something’s up,” she thought, but wisely kept her thoughts to herself.
Later, when the girls went to bed, they parted at their doorways in the hall.