Phyllis | Page 6

with her usual straightforwardness.
"Is she like you, Phyl?" Eleanor demanded.
"Not a bit," Phyllis denied. "She's a thousand times nicer. She is so quiet when there are people around that it looks as though she were bashful, but she really isn't a bit. She just never says anything unless it's worth saying, and I wish you could see her look at me when I babble on."
The girls laughed, and Muriel asked:
"What school has she been to? One up there in the country, I suppose."
Phyllis bit her lip. What was the matter with Muriel? She was being disagreeable and not at all like the good-natured rolypoly chum of past years.
"Janet has never been to school," she said quietly, "she has always had a tutor."
"Oh, Aunt Jane's poll parrot! That means she will know twice as much as any of us," Sally cried.
Aunt Jane's poll parrot was a mythical bird of wisdom that Sally always appealed to in moments of excitement. Phyllis laughed at hearing the familiar exclamation again.
"Oh, Sally, that does sound natural, I really feel that I am back at school and that Old Chester and Janet are all a dream!" she exclaimed.
"Well, thank goodness they're not. Look here, Phyl. Do you know, I think I'm a lot more excited about your twin than you are. In the first place she is just the sort of girl we need at school," Sally spoke seriously. "We have been the same lot of girls for, well three years now, with only an occasional new one to jog us up, and I think Janet will be a blessing. She'll be different, and that's what we need."
"I hope she is in our class," Eleanor added.
"Well, of course I do too," Muriel said slowly, "but I don't see anything the matter with us as we are, except that I do feel that it is time we were acting a little older and not so like tomboys." She looked meaningly at Sally. "We have officers this year, and, as Miss Harding says, we will have added responsibilities, and I think we ought to try and be more dignified."
Sally looked quickly from Phyllis to Eleanor and Rosamond. All three looked surprised and a little angry. Sally laughed contentedly.
"Hear that poll? we are to be more dignified! Bless us. Muriel, but you are a scream," she teased.
"I don't see why it's funny to want to be more grown up and serious." Muriel's feelings were hurt, and she looked angrily at Sally.
"If we acted any differently we'd be affected," Eleanor announced with conviction, "and I for one don't think that would be much of an improvement."
"Surely we can hold our place in school without putting our hair up on top of our heads,"--Phyllis laughed good naturedly, "but I think I know what Muriel means," she added loyally.
"No, you don't, Phyl." Rosamond had kept quiet up until now but her eyes had danced mischievously. "You none of you know, but I'll tell you,"--she paused dramatically.
"Muriel has a beau." she announced. The girls all laughed, but she went on quite seriously. "He takes her home from school and he carries her books, so of course she has to grow up. Why, even the seniors watch her from the study window in silent jealousy."
Phyllis looked at Muriel. There was no denying the change now. She sighed.
"If you are going to talk like children, I'm going home." Muriel rose with what she hoped was becoming dignity, and in silence the girls watched her put on her hat and coat. Phyllis followed her to the door.
"Muriel, don't be silly," she pleaded. "We've been such chums, I can't bear to see you so changed." But Muriel refused to be comforted.
"It isn't my fault if you can't keep up with me," she said coldly, and Phyllis was too angry to answer.
She walked upstairs slowly. "I've lost Muriel," she said wistfully, but a sudden thought made her run up the rest of the way, two steps at a time.
"Girls, do you realize that this time to-morrow Janet will actually be here?" she exclaimed joyfully.
"Aunt Jane's poll parrot, so she will!" said Sally.
CHAPTER IV
JANET ARRIVES
Phyllis opened her eyes on Wednesday morning, and frowned as she heard the rain beating down on the tin roof below her window.
"It has no business to rain to-day of all days," she said crossly; "but, after all, it doesn't matter, for, rain or shine, Janet is coming."
She looked through the open door into the room adjoining hers and smiled. From her bed she could see the dainty white dressing table and the soft-colored print of Raphael's Madonna hanging in its gold frame beside it. Her own room, as her eyes traveled back to it, was shabby in comparison, but that only made her smile the more.
"It's just too heavenly to be true," she whispered