“What is the ‘Casino’?” whispered Mollie, when Miss Sallie had disappeared.
“Oh, it’s only a big club, where you play tennis and have dances, and any sort of entertainments. Nearly all the nicest people in Newport belong to it. Mrs. Cartwright says we’ll have most of our fun over there.”
Bab put her arm round her sister, as they walked downstairs.
“Mollie,” she said, “I have the queerest feeling. I am so happy, it frightens me. I never had such a good time before. I wonder how it will all turn out?”
Barbara could not guess that there were to be tears for her, as well as joys, at Newport. It was as well she did not know, or her pleasure would have been marred.
The girls finished dinner as quickly as possible.
“There’s time for a stroll on the cliffs, isn’t there, before eight?” inquired Ruth. “Do you feel equal to exercise, Aunt Sallie? Everyone takes the cliff walk the first thing after arrival in Newport.”
“Certainly,” Miss Sallie agreed. “I suppose I can manage it, though I have ridden so far that I may have lost the use of my limbs. However, I can sit down if I grow tired, and you children can go on without me. It’s perfectly safe, isn’t it, Mrs. Ewing?”
“Oh, yes,” Mrs. Ewing replied; “though it looks fairly dangerous, the cliffs are so high, the highest on the Atlantic Coast from Cape Ann to Yucatan. But very few accidents have occurred there—so far.”
Ruth and Barbara led the way. They could hear the sea booming and pounding below them. From the edge of the cliff they looked down a hundred feet at the sea, washing in on the level stretch of beach.