“But it can’t go on this way forever. He needs mother and I’ll be going away to school next fall.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that until after graduation. There’ll be plenty of time to discuss those matters then.” Janet felt somewhat like a very fatherly old man giving advice to a very young girl and she smiled to herself.
At the neighborhood drug store they dawdled over their sodas, thoroughly relaxing after the strenuous hours of rehearsal. On the way home they again walked leisurely, discussing little things about the play that appealed to them.
Helen’s mother, waiting on the porch, called to them the moment they came in sight.
“Hurry up, Helen. I’ve a telegram from your father.”
Helen ran across the lawn with Janet close behind.
“He’s coming, isn’t he, mother?” And to Janet there was something pitiful in Helen’s extreme anxiety for she was so desperately intent upon having her father see her in the leading rôle in the class play.
“He’s coming tonight, dear. He wired saying that he would be on the transcontinental plane which stops at Rubio at midnight. Janet’s father and mother are going to drive us over. You girls had better clean up a bit. We’re leaving right away.”
“I’m so happy,” said Helen. “I was afraid it was a message saying he wouldn’t be able to come.”
Janet hurried on home. Her father had the large sedan out in the driveway and her mother was bustling about the kitchen, making stacks of thin sandwiches.