"Sit close to me, Nancy," said Verena. "We're not a bit changed to you," she added.
"Well, that's all right, honey, for I'm not changed to you. Even if I am a very rich girl, I'm the sort to always cling to my old friends; and although you are as poor as church mice, you are quite a good sort. I have always said so--always. I've been talking a lot about you to Amelia and Rebecca, and they'd give their eyes to see you. I thought you might ask us all over."
"Oh! I daren't, Nancy," said Verena. "We are not our own mistresses now."
"Well, that's exactly what I heard," said Nancy. "Oh, how hot it is! Pen, for goodness' sake run and fetch me a cabbage-leaf to fan my face."
Penelope ran off willingly enough. Nancy turned to the others.
"I sent her off on purpose," she said. "If we can't come to you, you must come to us. We three girls at The Hollies, and my two boy cousins, Tom and Jack, have the most daring, delightful scheme to propose. We want to have a midnight picnic."
"Midnight picnic!" cried Verena. "But we can't possibly come, Nancy."
"My good girl, why not? You know I talked about it last year. We want to have one on a very grand scale; and there are a few friends at Southampton that I would ask to join us. You won't have any expense whatever. I'll stump up for the whole. Father gives me so much money that I have at the present moment over five pounds in the savings-bank. We will light fires in a clearing not far from here, and we will have tea and supper afterwards; and we shall dance--dance by the light of the moon--and I will bring my guitar to make music. Can you imagine anything in all the world more fascinating?"
"Oh, Nancy, it does sound too lovely!" said Briar. "I'd just give the world to go."
"But Aunt Sophy would not hear of it," said Verena.
"Nonsense!" cried Briar; "we must go. It would be such a jolly treat!"
Nancy favored the eight girls with a sharp glance.
"I have heard of that dreadful old body," she said. "Father told me. He said you'd be frumped up like anything, and all the gay life taken out of you. I came over on purpose. I pity you from the very bottom of my heart."
"But, Nancy, you can't think how things are changed," said Pauline. "All our time is occupied. Lessons began to-day. They are going to take hours and hours."