Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/211

195 Mrs. Redmond looked at Amy rather closely. Without knowing the exact state of the case, she suspected that there had been some falling out between the two friends.

“You must be careful, Amy,” she said gently, “not to let your new friends come too readily between you  and Fritz. It is natural that you should get more pleasure out of the society of girls, and for my own part I am very glad that you have these new friends. But at the same time Fritz has always depended greatly upon you in the summer, and you must not let him feel  that he is in the way.”

“Oh, I am sure that I do not.”

“Well, I should judge by the way he spoke that day when he came for you, and found that you had gone to Marblehead—that he felt that you had let the others ‘cut him out.’ Is n’t that the expression?” and Mrs. Redmond smiled at Amy.

“Well, I think that it’s funny that a boy should feel jealous of girls,” said Amy, “for that is what it amounts  to.”

“If you and Fritz are really friends, as I think you are,” continued Mrs. Redmond, “you will not let a thing  of this kind develop into a real coldness.”

“What thing, mamma?” asked Amy; she had not told her mother how Fritz had acted at Fort Sewall,  and she wondered if she had heard about it in any  other way.

“Oh, I mean the little feeling that you both may have.