Personally Bettina was glad that Allan Drain seemed interested to walk beside her, since this left David Hale free to be with Marguerite Arnot. Otherwise his sense of duty might have impelled him to be attentive to her. He had come to the cabin at her mother’s invitation. Bettina was convinced that he would find more pleasure in Marguerite’s company and that they would be glad to talk over the past year in France.
The walk was not to be of great length, Mary Gilchrist having proposed that they go to a low, cleared hill about a mile away on the far side of Half Moon Lake for their first toboggan ride.
One of Miss Patricia’s gifts, sent down from Canada, had been a toboggan capable of carrying eight persons. But to the Camp Fire girls’ chagrin Mrs. Burton had been unwilling to have them make use of it until they had a masculine escort. Absurd as her point of view appeared to several of the more independent members of her group of Camp Fire girls, no one had appealed from her decision.
This afternoon, moving swiftly ahead on snow shoes, Mary Gilchrist and Dan Webster dragged the great sleigh, leaving the others to follow as swiftly as possible. No one of the others had acquired Gill’s skill in the management of snow shoes save Dan Webster who had been brought up on a New Hampshire farm and was a trained athlete.
“Gill and Dan look very handsome together, don’t they?” Alice Ashton remarked. Tall and intellectual and not especially good looking, Alice Ashton was far from possessing her younger sister Sally’s popularity with men of all ages. But at present she and Sally were walking with their distant cousin, Philip Stead, between them and, as Sally was not making the faintest effort to entertain him, Alice felt compelled to assume the responsibility.
What was the difficulty with Sally? The suggestion that they go for a walk had been her own, and yet at present she looked as uncomfortable and annoyed as Sally ever permitted herself to appear. Undoubtedly she must be angry or troubled by some recent occurrence. Alice did not consider that this offered a sufficient excuse for Sally’s entire lack of interest.
The new cousin, Philip Stead, might have been an inanimate object walking between them.
Sally looked extremely pretty, with more color than usual, due to the sharp cold. She was wearing Mrs. Burton’s old seal-skin coat and cap, Aunt Patricia having presented the Camp Fire guardian with handsomer ones at the beginning of the winter in the Adirondacks. And Sally’s eyes and hair were nearly of the same shade and softness as the brown furs. Notwithstanding, she was frowning and her lips had a pouting, sullen look like a disappointed child’s.
Not appreciating the reason Alice was puzzled and at the same time grateful that the new cousin did not appear disturbed by Sally’s indifference, but sufficiently interested in her to make the task of amusing him simpler than she had imagined possible.
Alice was right. Sally was annoyed, she was even unhappy, although she would scarcely have agreed to this.