“Uh-h-h.” Leila received the assurance with a gratified gurgle.
“Oh, girls, it’s so satisfying to see you both again, and the four of us have such a lot to talk about,” Marjorie said with a happy little intake of breath, “but,” she paused, her eyes unconsciously roving in the direction of Leslie’s room. “It’s a case of ‘Remember the stranger within thy gates.’” She went on brightly. “We’ve plenty of time before dinner for one of our famous confabs, but it’s apt to be more or less noisy. If Leslie should hear us laughing and talking, it might make her feel—well, rather out of things here. She’s grown as sensitive as she used to be hard since she found herself. We must make it our special pleasure to show her we like to have her with us.”
“The confab is hereby postponed, but it will keep.” Leila nodded understandingly.
“We were going to shoo you two out of here, anyway,” Vera mercilessly announced. “If you were to continue to hang around in here until we unpacked our bags you might see”—she put on a mysterious air,—“well, something that you’re not to see, until later.”
Before Marjorie could reply in kind the loud honk, honk of a motor horn came up to the four friends from the drive.
“Oh, that’s Hal. He’s home earlier than I had expected. I won’t wait to be shooed out of here.” The color had deepened charmingly in Marjorie’s pink cheeks. A warm tender light had leaped into her brown eyes. “Pardon me, children. I’ll see you again in a little while.” She was at the door as she spoke.
An insistent repetition of the call sent her scurrying down the stairs and on to a side door of the house that opened upon the drive.
“Come here, girls, if you want to see—er—well—my ideal of perfect love.” Jerry had crossed the room to one of the windows, which looked down upon the drive, and was beckoning to Leila and Vera.
Peering down, the three girls were just in time to see the meeting between the two who had once so nearly drifted apart forever, but had at the last found love in all its tender glory.
Marjorie had run down the steps of the veranda in the same instant in which Hal had sprung from the driver’s seat of the roadster. They met midway on the walk, catching hold of hands, and laughing like two children. No embrace passed between them, other than the cling of hands, but there was a light upon both young faces that told its own story.