ummer before.

Blue Bonnet tried to appear interested. She smiled and answered
questions in monosyllables. She wondered afterwards if she had smiled in
the right place: her thoughts had been miles away from Sandy and
Kitty--from her surroundings. She was wondering how she could make Alec
understand that she was sorry for having been so disagreeable; that she
should miss him terribly during the rest of the vacation. She had turned
the matter over in her mind for the twentieth time without coming to any
definite conclusion when Alec began saying good-by.

"I'm going to turn Blue Bonnet and Carita over to Knight's care," she
heard him saying. "I have to get out early in the morning and there are
a few things to be done yet to-night. It's been a great old party,
Kitty. If I make the Point you'll have to come down to some of the
dances next winter. Good-by. See you all again one of these days, I
suppose."

"You'll see us all to-morrow morning at the station," Kitty answered,
looking straight at Blue Bonnet, hoping she would acquiesce, but Blue
Bonnet in her surprise could scarcely find voice to speak.

It was not until she was in the privacy of her own room that Blue Bonnet
confided her disappointment to Carita.

"I've been perfectly horrid to Alec," she confessed. "I've been angry at
him ever since he struck Chula yesterday. I don't know why--Chula did
act badly. Perhaps it was because I was so horribly upset. I was so
frightened--oh, you can't think how frightened! And now he's going
away--for two years--and he'll never know how sorry I am."

"Why didn't you tell him?" Carita asked.

"I wanted to, but I couldn't get a chance. He seemed so terribly
interested in Kitty. I couldn't get near him--alone."

"Why don't you write him a note, Blue Bonnet? Write and tell him that
you _were_ angry, but that you're all over it now."

"A note? I hadn't thought of that. How could I get a note to him? He
leaves so early in the morning."

"Write it now and we'll skip out and put it under his front door. We can
slip down-stairs--no one will hear us, and--"

"Carita! You don't know what you are talking about. It's twenty minutes
after twelve this instant. Don't you ever think you could get out of
this house without Aunt Lucinda's knowing it. She sleeps with one eye
open. No--that won't do. Can't you think of something else?"

"Yes--" Carita answered after a moment. "You write the note. I always
wake early in the morning--I got