"Late? Not I--to-day!" laughed the boy. Then, with genuine admiration: "Say, that is pretty slick, girls. I'll take off my hat to the Happy Hexagons to-day all right!" he finished, with an elaborate flourish. "Thank you," twittered Tilly, saucily. "Now don't you wish you had joined us? But then--_you_ couldn't have worn a white frock!" A prolonged bell-clanging and the rumble of an approaching train prevented Harold's reply, and sent the girls into a flutter of excitement. A moment later they stood in line, waiting, breathless with suspense. They made a wonderfully pretty picture. Each girl was in white, even to her shoes and stockings. Around each waist was a sash of a handsome shade of blue. The same color showed at the throat and on the hair. Quietly they watched the train roll into the station, and still quietly they stood until a tall, slender girl with merry brown eyes and soft fluffy brown hair appeared at a car door and tripped lightly down the steps to the platform. They waited only till she ran toward them; then in gleeful chorus they chanted: "Texas, Texas, Tex--Tex--Texas! Texas, Texas, Rah! Rah! Rah! GENEVIEVE!" What happened next was a surprise. Genevieve did not laugh, nor cry out, nor clap her hands. Her eyes did not dance. She stopped and fumbled with the fastening of her suit-case. The next minute the train drew out of the station, and the girls were left alone in their corner. Genevieve looked up, at that, and came swiftly toward them. They saw then: the brown eyes were full of tears. The girls had intended to repeat their Texas yell; but with one accord now they cried out in dismay: [Illustration: "A TALL, SLENDER GIRL ... APPEARED AT A CAR DOOR"] "Genevieve! Why, Genevieve, you're--crying!" "I know I am, and I could shake myself," choked Genevieve, hugging each girl in turn spasmodically. "But, Genevieve, what is the matter?" appealed Cordelia. "I don't know, I don't know--and that's what's the trouble," wailed Genevieve. "I don't know why I'm crying when I'm so g-glad to see you. But I reckon 'twas that--'Texas'!" "But we thought you'd like that," argued Elsie. "I did--I do," stammered Genevieve, incoherently; "and it made me cry to think I did--I mean, to think I do--so much!" "Well, we're glad you did, or do, anyhow," laughed Harold Day, holding out his hand. "And we're glad you're back again. I've got Jerry here and the cart. This your bag?" "Yes, right here; and thank you, Harold," she smiled a little mistily. "And girls, you're lovely--just lovely; and I don't know why I'm crying. But you're to come over--straight over to the house this very afternoon. I want to hear that 'T-Texas' again. I want to hear it six times running!" she finished, as she sprang lightly into the cart. On the way with Harold, she grew more calm. "You see, once, last fall, I said I hated Sunbridge, and that I wouldn't stay," she explained a little shame-facedly.