Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/56

42 as the two girls passed on into her room. She took up the square, blue envelope with its splashing writing, and turned it over in her hand, after the fashion  of girls before opening. “I wonder what she’s writing about!”

Then, as she opened and read the note, “There, she wants us to come over to-morrow and spend the day. She says that Edith is coming up from Beverly, and she wrote  her that you would be with me. Would you like to go?”

“Why, yes,” said Nora; “although I won’t pretend that I am crazy to see Frances.”

“Belle is staying with her,” added Brenda, as she read the note to its close.

“Don’t you suppose that that is why she asks you to come now. She knows that Julia is not here, and of course she would rather not ask her.”

“I dare say. They certainly are not calculated to get on very well together.”

“Oh, Julia could get on with any one, although I don’t really suppose that she cares much for Belle. She has always been very careful what she says in speaking about her. I wish that I were as prudent, but I generally speak out before I think.”

Now it was really a step forward for Brenda to admit that she would like to resemble any one else, and Nora, observing this change in her, wisely did not call her  friend’s attention to the fact that she had observed it. She was never quite sure when Brenda’s contrary spirit