Having given instructions that the Girl Scouts were not to be disturbed the following morning, Miss Vaughn breakfasted as usual with her two nephews at nine o’clock. After reading her mail, she established herself for a quiet morning on the porch with some books and her knitting, hardly expecting to hear anything further from the young people until luncheon. She was therefore quite surprised when her nephews strolled towards her about eleven o’clock, accompanied by two other young men with whom they had been playing tennis.
“You have met Jo and Ned, haven’t you, Auntie?” asked Milton, as they mounted the steps.
“Oh, yes, of course,” replied Miss Vaughn, cordially.
The young men all sat down on the steps, while the old lady could not help wondering what was about to happen, and whether there was any particular reason for the visit.
“A pretty hot day for tennis,” observed Vaughn, as if to apologize for the halt in the game. “So we thought that we’d take it a bit easy.”
“Yes,” added the one whom the boys addressed as “Jo”; “we’re both out of practice. We’ve been east all summer.”
“Indeed!” observed Miss Vaughn, wondering whether they were fishing for an invitation to meet the girls. If so, why had her nephews not invited them? Seldom did they show such deference to her wishes.
“Did you motor?” she asked, casually.
“Yes, part of the time,” replied Ned. “It was great sport—” His voice died down, as if he had something more that he wished to say, yet did not possess the courage to utter it.
“We saw your party of girls along the way,” put in Jo. “At least, they must have been the same ones, for they were all in scout uniform, and were evidently touring.”