“I haven’t seen her since we parted at ten o’clock at the foot of the hotel steps,” replied Martha.
“Nor I since she dressed to go out,” added Jeanette.
“It is strange that she is not back by this time,” said Miss Ashton anxiously.
“She said she had some chocolate in her bag,” observed Martha, “and that she wouldn’t starve if she went too far to get back by lunch time.”
“Yes, she did,” agreed Jeanette. “I thought she was joking; but maybe she meant it.”
“In that case, there is no sense in our waiting lunch for her,” decided Miss Ashton, practically. “Perhaps she will come before we have finished. If not, we’ll manage to feed her some way when she does come.”
“Nan always walks farther than she intends,” said Jeanette, as they sat down at the table; “then has to sit down and rest before she can get home again.”
“That’s probably the case this time,” decided Miss Ashton. “There is no occasion for worry about her.”
Jeanette tried to take the same view of the situation; but, in spite of herself, she felt some misgivings. She wished now that she had asked Miss Ashton to put off the shopping trip, and had gone with Nan. However, there was nothing to do but wait; and everything probably was all right after all. As Nan always said, Jeanette was over-inclined to worry.
Martha was so tired after her morning’s exertion that she threw herself across her bed, and slept most of the afternoon. Jeanette roamed anxiously from their room down to the lobby, out to the sun parlor, from which you can get a view of the street in both directions, and back again. Shortly after lunch, the fog crept in again; and the damp, gray, gloomy atmosphere added to her depression. She wanted to go out in search of Nancy, but since she was not very sure of direction in a strange city, she was afraid of losing her way. Miss Ashton had gone to the outskirts of the city to call upon a family whose address had been given her by a Boston friend with an urgent request to see them before she returned.