“I never saw Dad look happier,” agreed Ann. “We are all happy,--I hope.” Ann added that, for she wondered about Aunt Sue. “It will be a wonderful Christmas time. Why, Maury brought us home in the ‘family sleigh,’ so pretty, with its curves and fine fittings!”
“Did you like it? That old sleigh has quite a history. I will tell you some of it this vacation, when there is an opportunity. But tell me more about those girls,--the Jolly Six, is it, or have you more in numbers, as you had in Montana last summer?”
“The Jolly Six still exists, but they are not all of my friends, by any means. We have had a wonderful time, rushing girls for the ‘Bats’ and ‘Owls,’ and Suzanne is so much happier and better off in the new suite.”
“I never liked her friendship with Madeline Birch,” said Madam LeRoy, “but I did not like to insist on her rooming with you last year, after Sue explained the arrangement, though it was largely for your sake that I let it alone. Although you and Suzanne are cousins, and Suzanne is a dear child, it does not necessarily follow that relationship makes people congenial. So it was that I did not interfere.”
“I was perfectly willing to room with Suzanne, this year; but after the arrangements had been made, it scarcely seemed fair to Marta. Miss Tudor arranged it very sensibly, I thought.”
“What did Madeline think of the new arrangement?”
“She would not speak to Suzanne; but what with the Sig-Eps saying that it would not do to keep mad, and Miss Tudor’s putting just the right girls with Madeline and Genevieve, it all blew over. Suzanne told me that Madeline will be at her Christmas party!” Ann’s bright face looked up into the amused face so like her own in expression, at times.
“We have a new club now, the ‘Scribblers’ Club.’ Eleanor asked me if I did not want to be a famous authoress, so I am considering the matter! I haven’t written the great composition as yet, the one that will entitle me to membership, but I am hoping to get an inspiration this vacation.”
“Write about your mountains, Ann, or something in Florida, when you get there.”
“Of course you are. I would not go without you. Your mother and father would not have so good a time and we would all of us be saying, ‘How I wish Ann were here.’”