They were eager to go forward but were half afraid.

Joan and Nancy had left the others and walked across the lawn and were sitting on a vine-covered wall under a noble magnolia tree.  Nancy was still sweetly fair and she had not outgrown the childish outline of cheek and chin, the pretty droop of the left eyelid, and the quick habit of smiling.  She was tall and slim and graceful and bore herself with a touching dignity that was as unconscious as it was distinguished.

Nature had not arrived yet with Joan.  She was still in the making, and the best that could be said for her was that she was undergoing the ordeal with bewitching charm.

The dusky hair was filled with life and light; the eyes were yellow-brown and dark-lashed; the skin was creamy and smooth and the features irregular—­eyes and mouth a bit prominent in the thin face.  Joan was thin, not slim.  You were conscious of her bones—­but they were pretty bones, and every muscle of her lithe young body was as flexible and strong as a boy’s.  She could change from awkwardness to grace by a turn of thought.  Joan was subject to outside control, while Nancy seemed possessed by innate inheritance.  Both girls were in white, and while Nancy’s appearance was immaculate, Joan’s was suggestive of indifference.

“It is wonderful—­this going abroad,” Joan was saying while her long, supple fingers wove the stems of daisies into an intricate pattern.  “And to go to that little Italian town where mother was married!  Nan, I’m going to know all about mother and father this summer.”

Nancy’s head was lifted slightly, and her cool blue eyes fixed themselves upon Joan.  There was no doubt about the colour of Nancy’s eyes—­they were blue.

“I do hope, Joan,” she said, “that you are not going to spoil everything by making Aunt Dorrie uncomfortable.  If she has not told us things, it is because she thinks best not to.”

“But it’s getting on my nerves, Nan.  It’s ominous.  Maybe there is a—­a—­tragedy in our young lives”—­Joan dramatically set her words into comedy—­“a dark past.  How I would adore that!”

“I would loathe it!” Nancy murmured, “and there couldn’t be.  I know there is only a deep sadness.  I wouldn’t hurt Aunt Dorrie by—­by unearthing it.”

“Nan,” here Joan pointed her finger, “do you know a blessed thing about your father?  I don’t!”

Nancy flushed, but made no reply.

“There’s where the secret lies—­I feel it in my blood!” Joan shuddered and Nancy laughed.  “It didn’t seem to matter until now, but, Nan, we’re women at last!”

“Of course,” Nancy spoke, “I have thought of that.  The best families have such things in them—­but they don’t talk about them.  Now that we are women we must act like women—­such women as Aunt Dorrie.”

“Nan, you’re a snob.  A pitiful, beautiful little snob!” Joan wafted a kiss.  “Your prettiness saves you.  If you had a turned-up nose you’d be an abomination.”