“We are so delighted!” said Pauline. “We have missed you just dreadfully. But we have had a good day. We went to the sands at Carlin Bay. Uncle Beverley took us, and we did enjoy ourselves! But still it isn’t half so much fun when you’re away. You’re so splendid at telling stories, you know. But come along now; you’re just in time for supper, and after supper we mean to have a grand game at hide-and-seek before we all go to bed. Honora! Nora dear, here is Penelope—she is come back!”
Honora ran down the grassy sward to meet her friend.
“Why, surely,” she said, “you didn’t walk home?”
“No, no—I left the carriage at the gate.”
“But why did you do that?”
“I thought I’d like to walk up the avenue.”
“You look dead tired; is anything the matter?”
“I have a—a—headache,” said Penelope, taking refuge in this time-honoured excuse for low spirits.
“Poor thing! I expect you found the sun very hot at Marshlands. As to Nellie and Pauline—I call them a pair of salamanders; they can stand any amount of heat. They would insist on father taking them to Carlin sands to-day; and they came back fresher than ever. The rest of us stayed more or less in the shade, for I never remember the sun being so hot.”
“Come in, and have some supper, Pen; that’ll do you good,” said Pauline.