"It's hard luck for us all." Sadie spoke the thought that she knew was in Jo's mind too. "Just when we had come so close to it! Why, Jo, do you realize that in two weeks we were to start for Laurel Hall?"
Jo gave a little laugh that was part sob.
"I haven't been realizing anything else since last night!" she said.
The girls reached Jo's gate and lingered before it a moment, turning their faces to the crisp evening breeze.
Suddenly Jo caught Sadie's hand in hers and squeezed it passionately.
"You're going—you and Nan!" she said in a fierce little whisper. "I'm not a—a dog in the manger, Sade!"
There was the noise of a clicking gate latch and Jo sped up the path to the house.
Sadie sighed and made her way slowly across the road to her own home. The pleasant aroma of cooking things greeted her from the open door. It was then that Sadie made a discovery. For the first time in her healthy young life she had lost her appetite!
The news of Jo's heroism had reached home before her. Mrs. Morley, a plump, comfortable woman of forty, greeted her daughter at the door with a flood of proud, motherly questions.
Jo, who was feeling suddenly very weary and discouraged, almost on the point of tears, answered apathetically: