“I wish I could think as Joan does, that the decision does not rest with us and we must be content,” she added finally. “I feel as if I knew it was the only thing for Kara to come back to us and as if no one and nothing could induce me to think otherwise.”
“Not a very sensible point of view, Victoria,” a voice answered.
In the tone there was a different enunciation. In the voice there was a different emphasis from the other Girl Scouts. Besides, no one of them ever spoke to Tory without using her abbreviated title.
The girl who had made the remark was different in manner, appearance and costume from the rest of the group, although not conspicuously so. Martha Greaves was an English girl who had crossed the ocean early in the summer with Tory Drew’s father and step-mother to spend the summer in Westhaven. She was singularly tall with light brown hair and gray-blue eyes.
After she had spoken she appeared a little embarrassed as if she regretted having called the attention of the other girls to her presence.
At the beginning of their acquaintance Martha and Tory had felt drawn toward each other. The differences in their temperaments appeared not as a barrier, but an interest.
But with the opening of the camp in Beechwood Forest, Tory had neglected her responsibilities. Her affection for Katherine Moore had made her less mindful than she should have been of a stranger in a new environment.
Fortunately Martha Greaves was an English Girl Guide. She was wearing the uniform of the Guides at this moment. Shy she might appear upon suddenly expressing her opinion, yet assuredly she had made a number of friends among the Girl Scouts. Moreover, she was too vitally interested in the differences between the two organizations, the Girl Guides of England and the Girl Scouts of the United States, to be especially self conscious.
She understood and liked Tory’s impulsive nature with its capacity for romantic affection, so unlike her own. She considered herself to be a matter-of-fact person with only a few enthusiasms.
At Martha’s sensible statement Tory had the sensation of being suddenly plunged into cold water.