“And my great-grandmother’s first cousin! There! I knew there was some bond between us, Barbara!” Miss Davis declared excitedly, getting hold of Barbara’s arm and squeezing it with more vigor than might have been expected, even after Babs had felt the first decided squeeze.
“Oh, how wonderful!” trilled the girl. Her exclamation had a twofold meaning, and one fold applied to her relief that the other matter was not being brought up before her father.
“Now let those girls cut,” she was thinking. “I guess I can have some friends of my own, and relations even. Think of it! An enemy, one to be feared, to turn out some precious relation. All through a faded old sampler!”
The relief was like the snapping of a string somewhere in Babs’ make-up, for she would have danced around if there had been room. As it was, she couldn’t budge without stepping on somebody’s feet.
Her father and the chairman, Mrs. Winters, were quickly engaged in conversation, and the sampler was in the chairman’s hands when Babs managed to drag Miss Davis away.
“I must speak to you,” she whispered, timidly.
“Did you get it?” breathed Miss Davis hopefully.
“No; but I know something about it.”
“Oh, do you!”
Instantly Barbara regretted the way she had said that. Miss Davis thought “knowing something about it” would mean much more than it did.