continued:
"I don't see how Antonia ever found you--from his account. Fortunately the child is wonderfully quick or you would be waiting at the station still. Where is she, by the way?"
Pearl explained that she had dashed down to the beach to ask her brother to wait for them, and would it be all right if she went swimming too? Over Mrs. Conway's shoulder Pearl could catch a glimpse of the piazza, and beyond that the faultless blue rim of the horizon; and as she talked she could hear close by the thud and hiss as a wave went up the beach. She longed to be in the water.
"Oh, yes, go if you want to," said Mrs. Conway. She was not exactly cordial. Gentle, friendly people like Edna Conway always go too far when they try to be cold; they have no experience in the rôle. "But try not to keep them waiting too long. My children hate to be kept waiting."
"I do myself," answered Pearl gayly.
"Really?" said Mrs. Conway, and the arched eyebrows went up under the gray thatch.
To be continued...
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