Do you know , some of the girls were very much vexed because she was n't asked to the picnic . They said that it was sheer rudeness not to ask her , and that it reflected on us all , even if Patty and Wilhelmina were responsible for it . I 'm afraid we girls at Miss Braxton 's have been getting snobbish , and some of us are beginning to find it out and be ashamed of it . '' `` Just wait until school opens , '' said Nan -- vaguely enough , it would seem . But Maude understood . However , they did not have to wait until school opened . Long before that time Winboro girlhood discovered that the Wallace girls were taking Florrie Hamilton into their lives . If the Wallace girls liked her , there must be something in the girl more than was at first thought -- thus more than one of Miss Braxton 's girls reasoned . And gradually the other girls found , as Nan had found , that Florrie was full of fun and an all-round good companion when drawn out of her diffidence . When Miss Braxton 's school reopened Florrie was the class favourite . Between her and Nan Wallace a beautiful and helpful friendship had been formed which was to grow and deepen through their whole lives . `` And all because Maude in a fit of abstraction wrote ` Hamilton ' for ` Hastings , ' '' said Nan to herself one day . But that is something Florrie Hamilton will never know . An Unpremeditated Ceremony Selwyn Grant sauntered in upon the assembled family at the homestead as if he were returning from an hour 's absence instead of a western sojourn of ten years . Guided by the sound of voices on the still , pungent autumnal air , he went around to the door of the dining room which opened directly on the poppy walk in the garden . Nobody noticed him for a moment and he stood in the doorway looking at them with a smile , wondering what was the reason of the festal air that hung about them all as visibly as a garment . His mother sat by the table , industriously polishing the best silver spoons , which , as he remembered , were only brought forth upon some great occasion . Her eyes were as bright , her form as erect , her nose -- the Carston nose -- as pronounced and aristocratic as of yore . Selwyn saw little change in her . But was it possible that the tall , handsome young lady with the sleek brown pompadour and a nose unmistakably and plebeianly Grant , who sat by the window doing something to a heap of lace and organdy in her lap , was the little curly-headed , sunburned sister of thirteen whom he remembered ?
The young man leaning against the sideboard must be Leo , of course ; a fine-looking , broad-shouldered young fellow who made Selwyn think suddenly XXXXX he must be growing old .
Between If about as at for in that to until