"_Sid-ney!_ Luncheon. I've called you three times." Vick's voice, sharply rebuking, broke across Sidney's occupation. She jumped hurriedly from her perch, tucking the letter into the pocket of her blouse. Her lips pressed together in a straight thin line of red. Life must, of course, appear to go on as usual--school and the same stupid things she did every day, Nancy, who was so distressingly short of the standard Pola had that day forever fixed. No one, her sisters least, must suspect that Adventure loomed so close. She would guard her plans carefully in her "inscrutable breast." CHAPTER V "THE SUMMER WILL TELL WHO LAUGHS LAST!" To use Sidney's own thought, "things happened" with amazing swiftness. If a fairy godmother had been invited in at her christening her plans could not have prospered more. First came Mrs. Milliken's unpleasant announcement that the Summer Convention of the League was to be held in Middletown during July which meant that every day for two weeks would see the old house invaded by the curious and the reverent. Mrs. Milliken, in Sidney's hearing, had gently hinted that it would be very nice if the girls could go away somewhere for July--at least all of them except dear Isolde. Then Sidney heard for the first time of Isolde's invitation to the Deerings. Isolde had thrown it in self-defense at Mrs. Milliken. "I do not expect to be here, Mrs. Milliken. I am going to Professor Deering's for July and August to help him with his new book." Sidney turned away to hide a sudden smile, not, however, before she caught Trude's eyes anxiously upon her. Then the Egg--seventy whole dollars--came on the same day that Godmother Jocelyn informed Vick by telegram that if she could be ready by the first of July she could go with her to California by way of the Canadian Rockies. "Be ready! Well, I should just say I _could_!" Vick's eyes had shone like stars against a velvet black sky and Sidney had again intercepted that anxious glance from Trude. Isolde considered this an auspicious moment, with all the excitement over Vick, to break to Sidney their plans for the summer--plans hurried to a head by the League's announcement. "And Trude's going to Long Island with the Whites, dear, but you won't be lonely with Huldah. You can have Nancy here and probably she will invite you down to Cascade." "Oh, there's a letter from Huldah on the table in the hall! I meant to bring it in and forgot," cried Vick. "Get it, dear," asked Isolde, gently, of Sidney. Action would help Sidney control her disappointment--if the child _was_ disappointed. Perhaps Trude was over-apprehensive. Trude hastily scanned the few lines of the letter Sidney put into her hands. "Oh, _dear_," she exclaimed "Huldah can't come." Could any fairy godmother, indeed, have shaped circumstances with more kindly hand? "She says she can't leave her niece. Her niece's just had a baby. And her rheumatism is bad."