“‘She said that we’d all think she was a fibber, and that’s what she really had been, for she hadn’t the least idea who the boy was in the photograph. She just knew that he was a football player whose picture was among a lot that her cousin had brought home from school. She said she was just crazy about him and always would be.’
“‘Did Sally ever see him again?’ Virg inquired.
“‘No, I guess not. Benjy said that Donald Dearing went to France soon after that to be with his father, who was stationed there.’
“Margaret looked meditatively into the fire. ‘If only girls knew how much more boys like them when they are not sentimental,’ she said, ‘they would all try to be just good comrades.’
“‘Sally didn’t return to Vine Haven the next term,’ Betsy continued. ‘Honestly, I felt sorry for her, and so I wrote her a Christmas letter and told her the girls didn’t hold it against her because she had used her imagination. She was so happy to get that letter and she packed right up and came back to school.’
“‘Poor girl!’ Virginia said kindly. ‘Do bring her to the meetings of The Adventure Club. Perhaps it will do her a lot of good. Don’t you think so, everybody?’
“Babs and Margaret nodded. ‘I always liked Sally, and I’m pretty sure that she won’t be sentimental again,’ Megsy replied.”
A get-ready-for-bed gong was pealing through the corridors and the girls arose. “This is Monday,” Babs announced. “I’m going to study like a good one, so I’ll know every question asked me at the Saturday Evening Review.”
CHAPTER II
SENTIMENTAL SALLY
Sally MacLean entered Barbara’s room almost shyly on the following Saturday evening. She was pleased because Betsy had invited her to attend The Adventure Club’s first gathering, but remembering her humiliation of the year before, she was not sure how she would be received.