"Where's Marian?" asked Grace, noticing her absence.
"Don't ask me," said Eva, in a tone bordering on disgust. "She won't be out for some time."
"Shall we wait for her?" inquired Anne.
"No," replied Eva shortly. "Let us go, and don't ask me anything about her. When she does finally appear you'll understand."
"This sounds very mysterious," said Miriam Nesbit, who in a white dotted Swiss, with a sprig of holly in her black braids, looked particularly handsome. "Come on, girls, shall we go down?"
The six girls descended to the drawing room, looking the very incarnation of youth and charming girlhood, and the judge's eyes brightened at sight of them.
"A rosebud garden of girls," he cried gallantly, "but I seem to miss some one. Where is the seventh rosebud?"
"Marian will be here directly," said Grace, as they gathered about the big fireplace until dinner should be announced.
But ten minutes went by, and Marian still lingered.
"Dinner is served," announced the old butler.