Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/269

Rh have her on our minds all the time. Not that I don’t like her,” she added, hastily, noting Julia’s look of surprise; “but of course we ’ve had so many other things  to do this week.”

“Yes,” said Julia, a little doubtfully; “but still— still—”

“Now, Julia, Amy is more my friend than she is yours. So you don’t have to stand up for her.”

Julia said no more, although she wondered why a longer acquaintance should entitle Brenda to greater liberty in  neglecting Amy. It was true that the actual time since they had last met was not so very great,—little more than  ten days. Yet there had been a kind of understanding that the girls should meet every two or three days—“if not  oftener,” Nora had said—to read together, and discuss  their books.

A week had now passed without a meeting of this kind, and Julia wondered if Brenda had made an explanation to  Amy. From Brenda’s present tone she felt quite sure that no explanation had been made, and she felt sorry that  she had not attended to it herself. Now Amy, when she saw the two cousins taking their seats in church, looked  at Brenda with more or less bitterness in her thoughts. It was plain that Brenda had had no compunction about dropping her. She would have cared less had not cousin Joan and Fritz both been ready to talk to her about it. Fritz had not meant to annoy her, but in offering once or twice to go on his wheel with a message for her to the  girls at Rockley, he had not pleased her. His intentions,