Nothing was said about their real errand until the sherbet was finished, and they had all gathered on the wide front porch where the moon, shining through the vines, made a leafy pattern on the floor.
“We heard from Lois to-day,” began Mrs. Grant.
“We’re not going!” thought Nancy, quick to detect the reluctant note in her voice.
“Things are not going to work out quite the way she hoped,” went on Jeanette’s mother. “Madelon, poor child, feels that she can not possibly leave her foster mother this summer——”
“How is that?” asked Mrs. Pembroke.
“It seems that the woman is laid up with an attack of rheumatism, and has no one to take care of her——”
“But where is her husband?” interrupted Nancy.
“He has to work in the fields, getting in the winter crops; so she is alone all day long,” replied Mrs. Grant. “Madelon wrote Lois that she herself is terribly disappointed at having to give up the Nova Scotia trip, but since her foster mother was so very good to her when she was little, she really felt it would not be right to leave her in this emergency. And I’m afraid we shall all have to admit that she is right.”
“The poor child!” murmured Mrs. Pembroke.
“Yes, I feel very sorry for her, especially since I imagine, from what Lois says, that her patient is very impatient.”