Certainly at the present moment her expression was austere, although uneasy and distressed as well.
“What are you doing, Sally?” she inquired, her voice gentle and solicitous, yet observing that a wave of color had swept over Sally’s face even before she had spoken.
The next moment Sally flung her bag down on the floor again, answering petulantly:
“What am I doing? Well, really, Alice, I do not see what difference it makes to you, or why you should slip into our room so quietly that you frightened me. As a matter of fact, I got down my traveling bag to–to—” Sally’s voice trailed off helplessly for an instant. The next instant, gathering force, she repeated: “I pulled down my bag because I wished to store away some odds and ends which I wish to keep safely.”
Then losing her temper in a most suspicious fashion, suddenly Sally stamped her foot as if she were an angry child and at the same time her eyes grew unexpectedly dark and lovely.
“That is not what you came into this room to announce to me, Alice. So please say whatever it is you wish and be through. I am going out for a little walk before lunch.” In any event Sally was no coward!
“Then sit down. You do not look very well and I am afraid you won’t like what I must say,” Alice returned. “Understand, it gives me no pleasure; instead, I am tremendously worried and unhappy. I suppose I should have talked the situation over with Tante before she went away, but I knew it would interfere with her trip and so avoided troubling her.”
In answer to her sister’s suggestion Sally seated herself upon a tall, old-fashioned wooden chair, so that only her toes were able to reach the ground. All at once she had felt as if she would be more comfortable seated. It was not because of Alice’s suggestion that she had agreed, but because of a sudden sensation of weariness, almost of physical weakness, although this last idea seemed absurd.
Yet somehow Sally appeared so like a tired and rebellious child that her sister found it difficult to continue their conversation. However, she must introduce the accusation she had been schooling herself to make before entering the room.
“Is there anything you would like to talk to me about, Sally? Outside our daily life and work here at the farm is there anything which has been interesting you recently and which you have preferred not to mention to anybody?” Alice inquired gently, her voice shaken by her effort to hide her concern, while a fine line appeared between her level brows.