"Sit down, sit down, and let us begin!" said Frances, who was a very downright, honest sort of girl. "What I want to do is to get to business. The fair is only three weeks off. We have committed ourselves to it, and we have really made very little way. The idea of the fair is, of course, Janet's, and she's the head for the present; but when Evelyn joins us, we'll have a lot of fresh force put into everything. Mrs. Freeman says that Evelyn is better, and that she will be down to supper this evening, and I vote that we tell her about the fair then, and ask her at once to come on the committee. What do you say, Dolly?"
"I agree, of course," said Dorothy. "Evelyn is delightful; and she has such a lot of tact and sense that having her with us will insure the success of the fair."
"Well, that is our principal business to-day," continued Frances. "We can soon put it to the vote, and then each member of the committee can join her own working party, and get things as forward as possible. For my part, I can't get the girls to do much needlework this hot weather. I have done everything in my power to incite them; little Tim's destitute condition has been aired before their eyes so often that it begins to lose its effect. The girls who are well off say they will buy things, or write to their several homes for them, and the girls who are badly off simply loll about and do nothing."
"You have not sufficient influence, Frances," said Janet, some angry spots coming into her cool, pale cheeks. "Now, my girls work extraordinarily well. Annie and Violet, and Rosy and Mamie, are painting some beautiful fans; they will be really artistic, and will fetch a good price. All that is wanted is to get a girl to take up the work she is really interested in. She'll do it fast enough then. You can't expect anyone to care to hem stupid pinafores, and to make babies' frocks this weather."
Frances colored; she had no love for Janet, whose ideas on every point were opposed to her own.
"It's all very well to sneer at my pinafores and babies' frocks," she exclaimed; "but when people go to bazaars they like to buy useful articles. Your ideas are all very well, but you carry your art mania too far; however, when Evelyn is with us she'll make everything smooth. How glad I am that she has come back in time! Now then, who'll vote to have her asked to join the committee?"
"I will, of course," said Dorothy Collingwood. Janet was silent; she walked across the little platform at the top of the Lookout, and leant over the low parapet. Ruth and Olive were also silent; they cast anxious and undecided glances at their friend's back. They knew by her attitude that she was waiting for them to speak. In her heart Ruth adored Evelyn, but she was more or less in Janet's power, who had helped her many times with her more difficult lessons. Olive also felt that up to the present it would be her best policy to side with Janet.
"Well, Ruth, you, of course, wish us to ask Evelyn to join," said Frances, fixing her bright eyes on the girl.
"I—I don't know," said Ruth, in a hesitating voice.