“A girl is running it,” announced Mary Price, whose clear, dark eyes always seemed to be looking into the distance. “A girl is running it, and no one is with her, and——”
But the motor car was now in full view. It was a graceful little machine large enough to hold five or six people comfortably, its body painted a warm and pleasing shade of red, its cushions upholstered in a slightly darker shade which harmonized perfectly with the red of the body. A young girl, sitting on the front seat, was running the car as easily and steadily as an experienced chauffeur. Making a graceful curve, she turned into the driveway which led to the school grounds and presently drew up under a large shed, where people were in the habit of hitching their horses and vehicles on Field Day, or when football was in season.
“Who is she?” demanded Nancy’s schoolmates in a whisper.
“Why, she’s Miss Helen Campbell’s cousin, Wilhelmina Campbell.”
“Do you mean our old friend, Billie?” asked Elinor.
“The same,” said Nancy, in a low voice, for Billie Campbell was now approaching within hearing distance. “Her mother’s dead and her father’s brought her here to live with Miss Campbell while he builds a railroad in Russia, and she’s going to High School and she’s in our class and she’s coming to and fro every day in her own motor car.”
Nancy was speaking as rapidly as a talking machine going at full speed.
Billie, as her father had always called her, might have guessed that she was the subject of all this buzzing undertone of conversation among the school girls; but she was too well accustomed to strange faces and new places to feel stiff and shy now at the looks of curiosity which were turned on her. On the contrary, the West Haven girls themselves felt a little ill at ease and countrified in the presence of this new sophomore, who, with her father, an engineer, had lived in many countries and seen a great deal of that mysterious outside world which sleepy, quiet West Haven had never troubled itself much about.
But Billie Campbell was not destined to renew her acquaintance just then with these childhood friends of hers. A slender, very pretty girl, beautifully dressed, hurried out of the school building and called:
“Oh, Miss Campbell, may I speak with you a moment?”