“Marj and John had a tiff,” Jack explained, in spite of the evident embarrassment of both concerned, “and so Sis was hard up for a partner for her class dance, and took out her spite by picking on me!”
“You mean thing!” denounced his sister. “That’s all you think of a perfectly good invitation——”
“So I just fixed it up, and sent John anyway. I don’t think either of them minded much.”
“The tiff’s all fixed up, then?” inquired Ethel.
“Dinner is served,” announced the butler, before the question could be answered.
All through the meal, however, Ethel kept wondering whether there were anything wrong between John and Marjorie. The latter failed to show her usual interest in him, and as the conversation dwelt often upon the new troop, she almost seemed to exclude John in her descriptions of the girls and their doings.
Ethel was still wondering over this idea when the young people started for a walk after dinner. Again it seemed to her that Marjorie was avoiding him, on the pretence of wishing to talk over her plans with her brother. So almost casually Ethel fell into step with John, and tactfully steered the conversation to himself and Marjorie. Before long he confessed that although the tiff, as Jack had called it, was entirely patched up, still something seemed to be amiss between them.
“Then interest yourself in what Marjorie is doing—and even offer to help her. She’s still heart and soul in the Girl Scouts.”
“And always will be,” he muttered, darkly.
“No; I think you’re wrong there. Sometime she will grow up, and then scouts will have to take a second place. But you must not try to hurry her; you must let her follow her dream.”
“I guess you’re right, Ethel,” he admitted, at last. “And—thanks awfully.... Yes ... I’m going to act on your advice, as quickly as possible.”
“Then that’s settled,” concluded the girl. “Let’s join the others again.”
The young people walked almost all afternoon; it was only when Lily began to notice pangs of hunger that she realized that it must be late.
“Shall we have tea somewhere, and go back in a taxi?” she suggested.
“All right about the taxi—but we mustn’t wait for tea,” Marjorie reminded her. “Remember, we still have to get back to college tonight.”
