2. Troubled Days Ahead
The next three days were anxious ones. All plans for the party had been cancelled, and after school the girls and Tommy hung around Rebecca feeling that she alone could help them bear the suspense. Jean occasionally stole away to her mother’s room and looked around to be sure that everything was as she liked it best, and when she came out into the wide upper hall she usually met Kit and Doris stealing from their father’s room, their eyes red from crying.
Tommy hid himself in dark corners, rather like a small puppy trying to run away from his fears. Kit declared there wasn’t a dry pillow in the house.
“How about your own self?” Doris asked.
“I cry too, but not all the time. I said before that I don’t intend to mope around. We’ve got to keep a stiff upper lip if we don’t want to go to pieces. We must represent the beyondness in feminine efficiency.”
“What does that mean, Kit?” asked Tommy.
Kit gave Tommy a good-natured shove. “Means that we’ve got to keep calm no matter what happens.”
Jean said little. Ever since she could remember, her mother had said to her, “You know I rely on you most, dear. You give me reassurance when I need it most.”
It was a thought that always gave her fresh strength, to know how much her mother needed her. She was smaller than Kit, slender and with dark eyes, with a soft look about them.
“Jeannie, you’ve got such sympathetic, interested, mellow eyes.”