There was a stupid round of drives and walks, shopping and piano practice, and after that nothing but to mope and fret and worry poor Eliot.

At school there was always the excitement of evading some rule or breaking it without being caught; and if there was no joke in prospect to giggle over, there was the memory of one just passed to make them laugh.

And then there were always Mollie and Fay and Kit Keller--dear old "Kell"-- ready to laugh or cry or lark with her any hour of the day or night, as it suited her mood.
Only seven days of vacation had passed, but to Eugenia it seemed an age since the four had walked back and forth across the school campus, with their arms around each other, waiting for the 'bus that was to drive them to the station.
The others were not so sorry to go, for they would be in the midst of their families.

Mollie was to go to the mountains with all the members of her household, Fay to an island in the St.Lawrence, where her family had their summer home, and Kell was going on a long yachting trip, maybe to the Bermudas.

It would be September before they all met again.
For Eugenia there was nothing in prospect but lonely days at the Waldorf, until her father could find time to take her down to the seashore for a few weeks.