“If you leave it to me, Cousin Molly, I’ll say to go right on with our trip. For a moment, I felt like going right up to the girl and saying, ‘Look in the mirror, please,’ just for fun. But my curiosity has all oozed out and my natural timidity, Dick, has come to the fore.”
Dick Lytton, who was present at the discussion, laughed and asked Shirley again if she had told his mother all the details.
“Most of them Dick. I’ll give her the whole story while we pack up. Now let me fold up your frocks, Cousin Molly. You know you like the way I do it. Is it too soon to pack them?”
“No. Better have it done before we go out. Where did you say you were going to take us, Dick? Oh, yes. We get another and better view of the old Pacific, Shirley. Go and find your father, please, Dick.”
CHAPTER V.
SENIOR PLANS.
It was past the middle of September, but the well-kept, well-watered and closely shorn lawns of the school still looked like velvet. A little rolling, with concrete walks, flower beds, fine shrubbery, great old trees with heavy foliage, close as a grove in some portions, the large grounds contained some handsome buildings of modern make, as well as several of stately old style no longer built.
Most attractive of all, perhaps, was the lake front, where Lake Michigan stretched out widely and a boathouse of a conservative style stood by a small dock, to which were tied a number of boats. What had probably been a bluff, of no great height, had been smoothed into a gentle incline toward a strip of sandy beach. Out at some distance a strong breakwater had been constructed to protect the small shipping of this girls’ school.
Back a little in the quiet open grove, on two of the rustic benches, which had been drawn close together, a small group of girls in their summer frocks talked in animated fashion.
Any group of girls is interesting and attractive, but these girls, representing the cream, so to speak, of girls who cared enough for education to receive it and who had reached the senior year successfully, might claim a second look from anybody.
“Oh dear,” said one, “classes begin tomorrow!”