The Baltimore girls were visibly excited.
"I didn't know they had returned to this country, did you, Nell? They've been living abroad for several years. Goodness, how that girl has blossomed out. I'd never have known her if she hadn't been with her mother."
"Do you think she's so very pretty?" enquired the other, quite naturally.
"She's a dream!" cried the Richmond young man, before the other could give her opinion. "But who is she?"
"Roberta Grand. She's a Baltimore girl and—"
"What name did you say?" asked the tall young man beside the fireplace, suddenly interested.
The name was repeated. He listened to a long discourse on certain school day friendships, succeeded by a period of separation in which the subject of all this interest had traveled abroad with her mother, completing an education that, if one were to judge from the descriptions volunteered by her former classmates, gave small promise in the beginning of attaining much beyond the commonplace.
"She was a dreadfully stupid girl at Miss Ralston's," proclaimed Miss Baltimore. "Wasn't she, Nell?"
"Indeed she was. She—"
The master of Jenison Hall was staring across the room in the direction of the register. He interrupted again.