“How can you say such a thing?” Ruth lost momentary hold on her patience. “If you only knew—”
“But I don’t, and it doesn’t look as though I should,” retorted Blanche with an asperity which brought a flush to Ruth’s cheeks.
“All I can say to you is just what I’ve said to the others,” Ruth returned stiffly, and turned away, too vexed for further speech.
Blanche was not to be thus easily balked in her pursuit of knowledge. Before the day was over she had managed to waylay the elect and make inquiry among them; an inquiry which bore no fruit. No one of the six girls knew why Miss Drexal wished to see them.
Believing that their professed ignorance had been assumed merely to thwart her, Blanche became frankly sulky and went about all day looking like a young thundercloud—a fact of which Jane Pellew took immediate notice, causing her to remark wickedly to Sarah that Blanche was only giving them a sample of the way she intended to behave at the reunion.
Not daring to quarrel openly with her long-suffering benefactors-to-be, Blanche poured forth her grievances into the ever-ready ear of her one confidante, Jeanette Hayes. “Ruth Garnier’s silly, mysterious airs make me tired,” she grumbled when she had finished regaling Jeanette with the little she knew concerning Miss Drexal’s summons. “I am sorry I ever got myself invited to that tiresome reunion. You can imagine what a delightful time I shall have among those babies. Thank goodness, I won’t have to depend on them for amusement. Once I am far enough away from home to do as I please, I shan’t let them interfere with me much. This reunion is only the lesser of two evils.”
“You’ll have to be very careful,” cautioned Jeanette. “You’ll find you can’t have your own way as easily as you think.”
“Just leave that to me,” boasted Blanche. “I can manage them.”
Although there was nothing especially amusing about this statement, both girls went into fits of laughter over it.
“Clever little Blanche,” commended Jeanette. “I wish I were going with you.”