Sitting up in bed with the first rays of light, Jeanette Colter found her hands clasped tight, her lips set, before realizing the cause.
Afterwards she smiled, but without any especial appearance of mirth.
"I wonder why I am so determined to win?" she asked herself half aloud, dropping back again on her pillow. She hoped to go to sleep for another hour if possible, or if not to sleep at least she would relax completely, so as not to be overtired.
Breakfast would not take place until eight o'clock. Afterwards they would motor over to the Club grounds.
If Jeanette's body relaxed, her mind did not.
"Absurd of me even to consider winning!" she murmured. "Not only is my stepmother ten times more skillful a horsewoman than I, but there are a dozen other women riders with more experience. I am years the youngest, although, thank goodness, there are two other girls who have entered the contest, one eighteen and one seventeen!"
Then for an hour Jeanette slept fitfully.
When she came down to breakfast in her riding-habit she was later than any one else.
She was wearing a dark-blue cloth suit with a short coat and skirt, knee trousers and dark-brown leather leggings. The short skirt would be removed when the race began.
Jeanette discovered the room filled with people. Half a dozen outside guests were having breakfast with the family.