[Illustration: "YOUR SISTER IS COMING?" HE SAID.]
[Sidenote: "Your Sister is Coming?"]
"Your sister is coming?" he said.
"She doesn't like to leave Grannie. So you'll have to do with me alone,"
smiled Mittie. "Such a pity, this splendid day! I did my best to
persuade her--but she wouldn't be persuaded."
There was an abrupt pause. Even Mittie's self-complacency could not veil
from her his changed face, his blank disappointment.
In that moment she very fully realised the truth that Joan, and not
herself, was the one really wanted. But she smiled on resolutely,
careless of what Fred might think about Joan's motives, and bent on
making a good impression.
"It's the first time I've been to your house--oh, for months and months!
I'm _so_ looking forward to a whole day there. And being rowed down the
river is so awfully delightful. I did try my hardest to get Joan to
come, too; but she simply wouldn't, and she asked me to explain."
This only made matters worse. Fred could hardly avoid believing that
Joan's absence was due to a wish to avoid him. In Mittie's mind lay a
scarcely acknowledged fear that, if she were more explicit, Fred might
insist on seeing Joan; and, in that event, that she might herself be in
the end the one left behind. She was determined to have her day of fun.
Ferris had grown suddenly grave. He made Mittie comfortable in her seat,
cast loose, and took the oars; but he seemed to have little to say.
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