finding cousins
In the end it had been much better for Priscilla if she had at once retraced her steps. Instead, while Amy still had her back to her, while Martine stood with her finger on her lips, Priscilla, with a rapid step that was almost a stride, walked farther away from them. Turning first one corner and then another, she indulged herself in her unreasonable annoyance with Amy and Martine. For a minute or two she continued to walk briskly, wondering all the time if the others would catch up with her. At length, when her curiosity overcame her pride, she did turn around, only to discover that her friends were nowhere in sight.
"I shouldn't think Amy would have acted so," she said to herself. "Of course I can't expect much from Martine, but Amy is different."
Yet if any one else had put the question to Priscilla she would have found it hard to say wherein Martine was at fault. It was only that in that fleeting glance she had gained the impression that the two were trying to hold some secret from her.
Priscilla had not walked very far when another turn brought her in front of a small wooden building that reminded her at once of a child's toy.
"Is it a school, or a church?" she wondered, and she glanced up at the little steeple.
"Hello, Miss Denman;" and Priscilla, lowering her gaze from the steeple, saw in front of her Martine's brother, Lucian Stratford.
"I didn't expect to see you here by yourself," continued Lucian. "I thought that you girls were off somewhere together."
"We were," replied Priscilla, "but I just thought I would—do a little sightseeing alone."