When she recognized the intruder she thawed perceptibly.
"Oh, Miss Carewe! Come in. Nothing wrong, is there?"
Belinda dropped into a chair with a whimsical sigh.
"Nothing wrong except my curiosity. Miss Ryder, do tell me something about that Allen child."
Miss Lucilla eyed her subordinate questioningly.
"What has she been doing?"
"Nothing at all. I wish she would do something. It's what she doesn't do, and looks capable of doing, that bothers me. There's simply no getting at her. She's from Texas, isn't she?"
The principal regarded attentively one of the grapes she was eating, and there was an interval of silence.
"She is a queer little thing," Miss Lucilla admitted at last. "Yes, she's from Texas, but that's no reason why she should be odd. We've had a number of young ladies from Texas, and they were quite like other school girls only more so. Just between you and me, Miss Carewe, I think it must be the child's Indian blood that makes her seem different."
"Indian?" Belinda sat up, sniffing romance in the air.