"Really," I said, "You astonish me! This is something new. It seems only the other day that you were saying how stupid you found this festivity last year."
"And so I did," he coolly replied. "You were not here last year, Nan. That fact makes all the difference."
"Oh, I dare say!" I responded with a laugh. "You don't think my vanity is equal to swallowing that? By the by, did you see anything of Agneta as you came through the grounds?"
"No," he said. "Why? Have you lost your cousin?"
"Hardly that," I said with a smile; "but I have missed her somehow, and I am afraid she may be feeling lonely as she knows hardly any one here. We will go and look for her. But now tell me how you got on in your exam."
"Oh, don't ask me, Nan!" he groaned. "You may expect to hear that I am ploughed again."
"Nonsense I shall expect nothing of the kind," was my reply. "You might tell me how you think you have done."
"Oh, badly," he said, "though I am not without a faint hope that I may squeeze through. I sincerely hope it may be so, for the governor's sake. I say, where's that crank of a professor?"
As he spoke we had come round to the front of the Hall, and saw before us a party on the lawn. The number of the guests had increased considerably, but I looked in vain for Agneta.
"I don't know what you mean," I said stiffly. Then I saw Aunt Patty coming towards me with the evident intention of addressing me.