Mrs. Fitzgerald accompanied her daughter to the station to meet her friend, and when she saw Miss Carroll, she liked her at once.
She had been dreading to see a very ordinary girl indeed; but Cissy's beauty and style, above all her lady-like manners, won their way at once to her proud heart.
And she was so glad, too, over Geraldine's happy looks that she felt almost grateful to Cissy for accepting her invitation.
What a happy day the girls spent together!
They had so much to tell each other that the hours passed like minutes.
Cissy was rejoiced when she heard of the discomfiture of Clifford Standish, whom she had always disliked and distrusted.
"You know I warned you against him, but you would not listen," she said.
"I was a silly, stage-struck little goose, that was the reason; but I have been well punished for my ambition," Geraldine replied, frankly.
"Then you have no further desire for a stage career?"
"No, indeed, dear. My experience on the road quite cured me of that. Why, I was never so hard worked and unhappy in my life. Besides, after all, I don't think I had any great talent for acting. I had some triumphs, it is true, but I believe it was only because I was rather pretty," Geraldine owned, candidly, and then the conversation drifted to other subjects.