When they reached the manor, the girls were having tea on the upper porch. They joined them at once, and the question of the dance was laid before them.
"Glorious!" exclaimed Nathalie, ecstatically, and her verdict was loudly echoed by the others.
Helen drew a chair up close to the tea-table over which Jean was presiding, and pulling off her gloves smoothed them out on her knee with the palm of her hand.
"I want to consult you in regard to the drive, Jeanie," she said in a lowered tone.
Jean nodded, and leaned across her, to hand a cup of tea to Miss Stuart.
"Nathalie," said Helen, "please give Lillian some of that hot toast."
"Toast and jam!" exclaimed Nan in accents of scorn, as she helped herself generously to both. "What sordid considerations, when there is a bona fide ball in view."
"Leave a slice for me, Nancy," laughed Eleanor. "I must fortify myself if you are going to wax eloquent."
"Stop your nonsense, girls," and Nathalie waved an imperious hand at them. "The question is, how shall we drive over?"
Jean turned to Helen.