Mrs. Pendleton watched affairs with the keenest interest.
"If he has a preference for either, it is certainly Louise," she told herself. "Sally seems content that it should be so."
All night long, after these afternoon excursions, both girls would seek their pillows, and dream the whole night through of handsome Jay Gardiner.
Louise would talk of him all the following morning, but Sally uttered no word; her secret was buried down in the depths of her heart.
Other young men of the village sought a pleasant word or a smile from gay, capricious Sally Pendleton. But she would have none of them.
"I will have a millionaire or nothing," she said, with a little laugh.
On two or three occasions, much to Sally's chagrin, Mr. Gardiner invited Louise to drive without her.
"That shows which way the wind is beginning to blow," she thought; and she looked at her sister critically.
Louise and her mother often had long conferences when she came in from her rambles with him.
"Has he spoken?" Mrs. Pendleton would ask; and she always received the same answer in a disappointed tone—"No!"