Judy was thankful the tension of the last few days was behind her. Now she would have the leisure to think. Why hadn’t she heard from Karl in five days? Had she said anything? Absent-mindedly she fingered a puppet and threw it into the rubbish heap.
“What are you doing?” Lynne asked sharply. “Those puppets are not to be thrown out! The children expect to take them home.”
She glanced at Judy’s troubled face, then said with her usual gentleness, “Why are you scowling? I thought you’d be happy. Everyone praised you—”
“It’s nothing, Lynne. I guess it’s the heat.”
“But it’s much cooler now.” Lynne’s eyes twinkled. She thought of one subject certain to chase the gloom from Judy’s face.
“By the way,” she said with affected nonchalance, “guess who I met this morning at the post office. Karl!”
“I asked him where he’d been keeping himself, that I hadn’t set eyes on him for a week.”
“What did he say?” Judy mumbled almost inaudibly.
“That he’s been busy, frightfully busy. Imagine, he’s entered a competition, written an original piece based on some theme—he was rather vague about it. But he’s been working on it every spare moment and expects to play it himself. He had to get an accompanist—your father’s idea. Isn’t it exciting?”
“Yes, it is. It’s wonderful! Did you say something about an accompanist? Who is he, Lynne?”
“It’s a she, a very nice girl, one of the students,” Lynne said brightly, too preoccupied with the cleaning up to notice the deep flush that suddenly appeared on Judy’s face. Lynne went on, “He put up a notice on the bulletin board and got an immediate response. The girl volunteered her services and isn’t charging Karl anything.”
“Really?” Judy said, immediately suspicious.
“Yes. You see it works both ways. She’s anxious to perfect herself as an accompanist and is interested in helping Karl at the same time.”
Judy emitted a long, skeptical “Hmmmm.” Interested in Karl, not in helping him, she thought to herself as she tried to shake off her mounting anguish. She tormented the wire figure in her hand. “What’s she like?” Judy asked in a tone elaborately casual.
“I really don’t know much about her, but I gather from what Karl said that she’s an older girl, that is, older than he is. He seems very pleased about her.”