CHAPTER V
A DISCUSSION
“The land that is always afternoon,” Joan Peters quoted dreamily.
Twelve girls were seated in a circle in a clearing in Beechwood Forest. Save for the fact that fallen logs formed their resting place here was a modern American “Agora of Mycanae,” the well polished circle of stones, where the earliest of civilized peoples sat for council and judgment.
The afternoon sunlight slanted through the deep polished green of the trees.
A few moments before, the other girls had been earnestly talking, then had ensued a thoughtful silence and Jean’s irrelevant speech.
“I never have understood exactly what that expression means, but it always has had a fascination for me,” she continued. “Please don’t think I am forgetting what we have been discussing this last hour. To my mind there can be no two ways of looking at it. The only problem we have is Kara. And, thank goodness, we do not have to decide what is wisest and best for her.”
Seated beside Joan, Tory Drew remained oddly still. Quiet either of body or mind was an unusual phase with her. Life and movement were her natural characteristics, more marked than with most girls.