“Oh, yes; I suppose you will have to explain,” said Geraldine, yawning. “Don’t make it too long, though, for I’m sleepy, and I never can get to sleep till the light is out.”
“Shall I say you send your love?” Gretel asked, as she seated herself at the desk and selected a pen and a sheet of note paper.
Geraldine hesitated.
“You can say I send kindest remembrances,” she compromised. “I hate sending love to people I really don’t love at all.”
Gretel laughed.
“No one can ever accuse you of being anything but honest, Geraldine,” she said. “Poor old Fräulein; I really don’t see why you never cared more about her. It does worry me to think I should have forgotten about this afternoon.”
Notwithstanding her “worrying,” however, Gretel slept very well, and awoke next morning quite ready to enjoy life.
“We have to spend the morning working for the Red Cross,” Molly explained at breakfast, “but this afternoon we can bathe and either play tennis or go for a motor ride. Kitty wrote she wouldn’t be here before six, at any rate. It’s a long ride from Stockbridge over here. Her family are going to spend a couple of weeks at Narragansett and will drop her here as they go through.”
It was a lovely summer morning, and soon after breakfast Mrs. Chester and the three girls started for the Red Cross meeting at the Godfreys’. A five minutes’ walk brought them to the house, which, like the Chesters’, was close to the water. Ada was watching from the piazza, and came running across the lawn to greet her friends.
“I am so glad you were able to come,” she said, kissing Geraldine affectionately. “I am going to have a house party next week, and there’s lots of fun going on. Did Molly tell you about the dance at The Griswold on the Fourth? Mother says I can go and take my party, and Mrs. Chester is going to take all of you. They say a lot of boys from the naval station will be there, and it will be very gay.”