Suit-cases unpacked and room-mates assigned, presently they were racing off to the tennis court although apparently no one was going to play.
“Too hot,” was the verdict on that suggestion, but it was more likely too much trouble; and besides, Esther and Louise at least were not dressed for tennis.
It was all very unreal to Barbara. These beautiful grounds, the gaily dressed girls, so care-free, so frivolous and more than anything else, so girlish. It must be fine to feel free from anxiety. There were Dora’s wages due, and Dr. Hale’s bills not coming in promptly, there were the cultures for experiments to be paid for and they were so expensive. And now, if her father was determined to shut her help out, that would mean also the loss of Glenn Gaynor’s assistance, for he worked with Barbara, enjoying the experiments and calling them fun when they worked them out together. He would hardly enjoy Dr. Hale’s professional methods; what boy, working alone, would?
Words are halting and inadequate to express the mental flashes that pictured all this in Barbara’s mind, for it came as clearly and as quickly as the penetrating gleams of the late afternoon sunshine, as they shot through indifferent clouds. Not even the insistence of the girls’ laughter nor Cara’s challenge to knocking up balls, could disguise the reality of the worries she had tried and failed to leave behind her at home.
And clothes! Clothes! How they mocked her now! She who could sally forth triumphantly in a skirt, unhemmed (frayed out for effect!); in a sweater that Dora made for the church fair and it didn’t sell, in a hat—no, without a hat. Around home and in her unhampered outdoor life all of this and even worse was all right, rather individual and by no means a hardship. But now, here with these daintily dressed girls, of whom even the careless Ruth Harrison admitted paying two dollars and a half for sport stockings, here Barbara fully realized her shabbiness.
They were seated on the low, white Roman benches, and Cara, who was wearing a simple but lovely white flannel, had just jumped up to bat a few balls over or under the net. Glad of a chance to relieve her misgivings with some positive action, Barbara quickly followed, and these two girls were again apart from the others, rather unintentionally.
“I told you,” remarked Esther to Louise.
“What?” demanded Louise.
“What? Why that,” pointing to the flying figures at the tennis net.
“Well, what of it? Cara asked us to play, didn’t she?” Louise was not going to let a small thing like Cara’s open preference for Barbara spoil her good time.