More than ever she was becoming convinced that there was no solution for her save in a boarding school in the East.
"Goodness, Jeanette, what is the matter, have you fallen asleep?" Lina suddenly queried, as the car was within sight of Mr. Stevens' home. "It is unusual with you, but you have scarcely spoken a word since we left home. You said this morning you had a headache and might not be able to come with us, but now you are here do try to appear more cheerful. You and Cecil have so many differences he may think you are resenting something that he has said or done in the past."
Via's fingers at this moment were inserted inside Jeanette's palm.
"I feel embarrassed, Jeanette, at the prospect of meeting strangers. Do help me," she murmured, sure of the appeal to her sister's bolder temperament that never had failed her in the past.
Jeanette straightened up with a little frown.
"Don't be a goose, Via, there will only be the members of the club, whom you know, and a few grown persons. They will not interfere with us, so you need not mind. I don't believe you really are half so afraid of people as you pretend, else how do you manage to be more popular than the rest of us?"
"How do you do, Cecil? I am glad it is such a lovely afternoon," Jeanette said, thrusting her hand out of the car window and speaking to her host before the others.
A few moments later the four girls were being introduced to Cecil's mother.
"I thought you were to spend the summer in Europe," Jeanette murmured, after they had shaken hands.
She was feeling a sudden, odd, unaccountable fancy for the fair, pretty woman who was Cecil Perry's mother. They were alike in appearance, the same delicate skin, gold hair and blue eyes, the same half spoiled expression which Jeanette had observed and resented on the boy's face at their first meeting.