A faint voice said, “Come in.” Shirley opened the door, to see Sidney through the open door from the study. She was lying on her bed, but dressed.
“Oh, excuse me,” said Shirley. “Were you trying to sleep? I’ll run right away, but my aunt sent me some berries and I thought of you, for the girls say that you have spring fever, or something and have lost your appetite.”
Shirley made her voice as bright as possible, as she put the attractive dish of berries on the study table.
“Oh, isn’t that good of you!” said Sidney, in a tone of pleased surprise. She sat up, saying, “Wait a minute. I don’t want to sleep,—and I have to make up for being so mean when you were here once before.”
Sidney had not expected to say that and Shirley showed her surprise for a moment. “Oh, there is nothing to make up,” she said. “Aren’t you a bit well, Sidney? Is there anything that I can do for you?”
“Nobody can do anything; but I’m really better, a little. I just didn’t want to go on a picnic. Oh, these are lovely! So many of the berries that we begin to get early are not ripe. But where are yours? Haven’t you any for yourself?”
“Oh, yes, plenty.”
“Do you mind going to get them, then? Come in to eat them with me. I have some delicious cookies that Edith had sent her from home. She would give me some, and I did not want them then.”
Shirley looked at Sidney to make sure that she really wanted her; she hurried back to bring a dish of berries for herself and another spoon. How odd this little lunch was, but how charming Sidney could be. No wonder that she had been influential in the school. They sat in the window seat together, while one by one the red berries disappeared, and the cookies took their place among the things that were. Sidney looked like a more sober and thinner edition of Shirley. “Wouldn’t a snap shot of us be funny?” she asked, a smile dawning with the thought. “Shirley,” she added more soberly, “do you suppose that we could be—closely—related?”
“I don’t know, Sidney, though I have thought of it, of course. What do your parents think, Sidney,—anything at all about it?”