A line of cars blackened the edge of the road as the girls came upon the scene.
“Folks getting here early,” said Cara. “You better hurry in with the sampler, Babs, or you won’t find a spare nail left to hang it on. Oh, there are the girls!” she exclaimed, for the other girls were waiting outside the strip of land that was too near the ocean to grow good grass, so it really could not be called a lawn. “Hello there!” she called to them.
They waved in answer and still waited. They were Louise, Esther and Lida; Ruth was not with them.
Both Cara and Barbara noticed how they waited; that they did not run towards the car as they usually did. Neither remarked this, but they both understood. Then, as Barbara was almost up to the group, and Cara was a few steps back of her, she saw what the girls meant.
They were not very keen on greeting her!
They were actually holding back from speaking to her, slighting her and ignoring her.
Cara must have seen this also, for she sprang into the embarrassing gap as she was sure to do.
“Think we were not coming?” she asked cheerfully.
“No, we weren’t worrying,” Louise said very, very evenly. “We are not going to be on the girls’ committee any more, so we just waited to tell you.” She said this to Barbara but was too constrained to use Barbara’s name. Every word seemed icy cold.
“Why, what’s the matter?” Barbara asked, naturally.