Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/338

318 to talk with her, and try to make her feel comfortable. Brenda and Nora, now on their way to the dining-room, stopping in front of Frances, introduced  Amy to her and the other girls in the group, and Nora  was purposely rather ostentatious in her demonstrations  of friendliness toward Amy, calling her by her first  name, and addressing one or two questions to her in a  tone that implied that she attached much importance to  her replies.

“Why, here’s our young oarswoman! Why, I’m delighted to see you!” exclaimed Mr. Elston, who just at this moment approached the girls. “Have you been saving any more lives lately?”

At this speech, which they could not help hearing, Frances and her friends looked up in surprise. Mr. Edward Elston was a man whom even a supercilious girl like Frances had to admit to be worth knowing. Yet here he was, showing undisguised pleasure in meeting this unknown young girl, whom they had set down as not worth  knowing, because they did not remember to have met her  before.

Then the mystification of poor Frances was still further increased when Ben Creighton approached and spoke to  Amy in terms that implied a more or less intimate acquaintance. For Ben was a person whom she met very often in Boston in the winter. In fact, his mother and the mother of Frances were cousins, and as he was called by  the girls of her set an especially good dancer and tennis  player, Frances would have been more than flattered, had