Entering the room for breakfast some little time later, Jack wore a cream-colored muslin dress, with brown shoes and stockings and a brown satin belt. She had a lace kerchief about her throat, which seemed to give her a properly domestic and elderly appearance.
Three of the four new Ranch Girls were waiting and appearing more friendly than the evening before.
Evidently they too had put on especially pretty morning dresses in honor of the occasion.
Jeanette was not present. Either she had failed to return, or else did not wish to come to breakfast until it was actually announced.
"Jeanette has disappeared. I hope you won't think she is rude if she does not get back in time for breakfast. She really should have known better than to be away the first morning of your and father's return," Lina apologized.
Eda, in a pink starched frock, with her black hair in a stiff halo about her face, looked like a slim Princess in a fairy tale. She condescendingly allowed herself to be kissed.
Lina only shook hands, but Olivia put up her lips in a sweet and natural fashion which gave her new stepmother a sensation of satisfaction and relief.
Small wonder that the grave, gentle girl was the favorite of the entire family.
Seeing her father enter at the same moment, she moved swiftly toward him and heard him whisper:
"If everybody were like you, Via, this would be a lovelier world. Where is Jeanette?"