“Won’t you be—in?”
“Oh, yes, of course,” Rosalind hurried to assure the puzzled girl. “I’m just preparing for emergencies. You see, I always expect them, but they somehow seldom come.” A little sigh took years from Rosalind’s heavy shoulders. She was acting now like such a very little girl, just sighing for romance and adventure.
On the big front porch, they tried the swing. As ever Rosalind cuddled up to Nancy in that eager, impulsive way that made Nancy feel sort of old. She, not being demonstrative herself, leaving that prerogative for the small brother Ted, could not at once get used to Rosalind’s effusions.
“You see, Nance,” bubbled Rosalind, “I’m going to do something won-der-ful!” This last word was dragged out like a tape line measuring thrills. “I waited until you came—you see, Orilla is really won-der-ful. She’s the very smartest thing. And you see, Nancy, you can’t realize the curse of being fat.”
A peal of laughter from the amused Nancy checked this.
“You can’t really mean it, Rosa,” she said. “Being fat isn’t anything. You’re just growing, and you won’t always be so—so stout,” the visitor assured her cousin, kindly.
“No, you just bet I won’t, not if I know it,” declared Rosa, who even then chewed a chocolate drop. “I’m going to get thin while the folks are in Europe. Wait until you see Betty, then you’ll understand. She’s just eel-ly, and she loves slippery clothes, the shimmery-shimmery kind. How could she ever own me as a step-daughter?” Again the catchy little sigh betrayed Rosa’s state of mind. Nancy was beginning to wonder if she might not be a little bit jealous of the famously beautiful Betty.
“But don’t you know,” cautioned Nancy, feeling more and more like a grandmother giving advice, “it’s awfully dangerous to—to take off fat too suddenly.”
“Don’t believe a word of it,” declared Rosa. “I’d take a chance on reducing pounds per day if I knew how. You see,” shifting the cushion and kicking the swing into action, “I inherit it from Grandmother Cashion, mother’s mother. She was fat. I have her picture. And she had curly hair like mine, so of course I just had to be like her,” argued the surprising girl.
“But you also got the curls,” suggested Nancy, in genuine admiration.