“Is that you, Sally dear? I have scarcely seen you all day. Tell me what you are thinking of while you stand there studying our Camp Fire circle.”
The other girls, attracted by Mrs. Burton’s speech, looked over toward Sally, who often was unexpectedly amusing.
Coming further into the room, Sally stood close beside the Camp Fire guardian’s chair.
“Do you want really to hear what I was thinking, Tante? I was considering the fact that our Sunrise Camp Fire at present was smaller in number than I ever have known it to be and that I am sorry. Yvonne Fleury has returned to live with her brother at the Château Yvonne, Gerry is married and she and Felix in California, and now Peggy is no longer with us. Naturally, as she is planning to marry after Christmas, she wishes to be with her mother and father. Well, thank goodness we shall have her for a visit at Christmas time!”
Sally’s reply was so unexpected that there was a short silence in the big room, broken only by the crackling of the wood fire.
The loss of Peggy Webster as a member of the Sunrise Camp Fire group was perhaps more keenly felt than that of any other girl.
The daughter of Mrs. Burton’s twin sister, Mollie O’Neill, who afterwards became Mrs. Daniel Webster, Peggy had been particularly devoted to her aunt and, as Mrs. Burton had no children of her own, was more like her own daughter. Moreover, Peggy and Bettina Graham, Sally and Alice Ashton had been intimate friends since they were tiny children, long before they had any acquaintance with the later members of their Camp Fire group. Peggy possessed a singularly vital personality and was generous, ardent and sweet.
“Sally, if you love me do not speak of Peggy’s absence or of her approaching marriage. She is too absurdly young! And yet I presume I must have given my consent as Peggy declared she would not marry without it, although she and Ralph Merritt already feel they have waited a long time. Sally, I feel as you do that our Camp Fire circle is becoming too small. Perhaps we shall grow too centered in one another and not so helpful as we wish to be. What would you suggest as a remedy?”
There was no immediate reply, the other girls as well as Sally Ashton pondering the question.
“Why, I presume we ought to invite other girls to join our Sunrise club,” Sally answered a moment later. And although her reply was neither original nor startling, it was received with unsympathetic silence.