However, it was Bess who sought Nan out, and that before Grace had barely had time to finish divulging her bit of news.

“What did I tell you?” Bess greeted Nan as soon as she could find her.

“What do you mean?” Nan retorted.

“I mean that talk we had some time ago up in your room.”

“What talk?” Nan pretended to have forgotten.

“You know as well as I,” Bess responded impatiently. “I mean that talk about Walker and Alice. It was nice, but it’s all over now.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that Walker talked to your cousin sometime yesterday, that your cousin was simply furious, and that Walker Jamieson has left, never to return!”

“Oh, Bess, don’t get romantic about it,” Nan said abruptly. “Now get your breath and tell me actually what you know.”

“I have,” Bess insisted. “Walker wanted to marry Alice and Adair MacKenzie said ‘no!’ Walker left without saying goodby to anyone and nobody knows when he is going to return if at all. Alice has gone to her room, and everybody in the house is all broken up, except the old housekeeper. All she does is shake her head and say ‘You just wait. This will all be all right in the end. Young people are too hasty.’

“Imagine that!” Bess ran on indignantly. “She says young people are too hasty, when all the trouble here is caused by Mr. MacKenzie and he certainly isn’t young!”

“Elizabeth Harley, you be careful!” Nan warned her friend. “You don’t know for sure whether what you are saying is true or not. You’ll have everybody in trouble if you don’t watch out.”

“But Nan, I could just cry,” Bess protested. “He is such a nice person and so is she. And now it’s all spoiled.”

“Hush, Bess,” Nan spoke more softly now. Then she looked over at Walter as though begging him to leave them for a few moments which he did.

“Now, see here,” she spoke sternly to Bess when he disappeared. “If there is anything at all in what you say, and I doubt it, there is nothing in the world to be gained by crying and talking and interfering.”

“I’m not interfering!” Bess was indignant.

“Well, then talking about it,” Nan corrected herself. “We can’t do anything about it except sit around and wait. I don’t believe that Walker has gone away for the reason you say he has at all, and if he has, he’ll be back.”

“Well, if he hasn’t gone away for that reason, why has he gone at all?” Bess demanded.

“You can’t tell,” Nan answered lamely. Why was it, she thought, that she was forever running into the secret that she had promised Walker she would keep. She had done the same thing ten minutes ago with Walter. Now she was doing it with her best friend. “You’ve just got to wait and find out,” she added.

“Come on, Bess,” she made a decided effort to change the subject, “let’s go in and get the camera. I want to take some pictures of the boys. Anyway we are neglecting them by staying out here like this.”

“Neglecting them!” Bess exclaimed. “They’ve done nothing all day but sit around and loaf. They’re a lazy bunch, and we all had such high hopes.” She let her sentence die away tragically.

“Why,” she wrinkled up her nose at Nan, as she spoke, “are boys in general so dumb? Oh, Walter’s all right, but all the rest are just like bumps on a log.”

“No, they aren’t,” Nan denied. “Don’t you remember last night when they were all out there below our balconies? You didn’t think they were bumps on a log then, did you?”

Bess shook her head and her eyes shone. “No, that was grand,” she said. “But today, they just don’t do anything.”

“Maybe they think that we’re neglecting them?” Nan suggested.

“Well, let them,” Bess flounced away from Nan and into the house.

Nan looked bewilderedly after her. “What can be wrong with Bess,” she asked herself and then did go after her camera. If Bess didn’t want any pictures of the visitors, she did.

A few hours later, after an afternoon siesta and a long cool refreshing drink of fruit juices beneath the palms of the courtyard, everyone felt better. Alice’s eyes were red and swollen with crying, but she made an appearance. Adair MacKenzie was even more terse than usual, but he was kinder too. And Bess who had but three hours before found the boys so disagreeable now was surrounded by them. She was telling them in low tones of the donkey episode of the day before.

It was all very cheerful and pleasant despite the emptiness that was felt because of Walker’s absence. However, no one mentioned his name. In fact, he might have remained away from the hacienda, away from Alice, indefinitely, if it hadn’t been for Adair himself, Adair and Nan.

“Well, well, girls, how do you like your new home now?” Adair MacKenzie was feeling somewhat talkative after his long refreshing drink of loganberry juice. “A pretty nice place, isn’t it?” He looked about himself with a satisfied sort of appreciation. Adair MacKenzie for all of his Scotch blood and his leanings toward economy really liked the good things of life. This southern home pleased him.

“It’s grand, Cousin Adair,” Nan answered for them all. “Perfectly grand. There’s only one thing that’s lacking.”

“And that?”

“We’re missing Rhoda. She was so excited about the plans to come down here that she could hardly contain herself, and now we won’t see her all summer. We won’t see her until we get back to school in the fall.”

“Who said you wouldn’t?” Adair asked suddenly. “Don’t jump to conclusions like that. Just to show you how wrong you are—you’re leaving tomorrow morning by plane to visit with this Hammond girl over the week end, and then if it’s at all possible, she is to come back with you to stay here for a week or two. Now, how’s that?”