Rena's Experiment by Mary Jane Holmes

She came at last, but the McPherson carriage was not waiting for her; Colin would not have sent it if he had known she must walk and Rex did not know she was coming. Tom and Rena, however, were at the station to meet her. Rena was glad to see her, while Tom seemed to be, and made her feel so comfortable that by the time the house was reached she was quite herself, without the air of superiority she had assumed when she first came to Oakfield. Then she was the Miss Burdick, claiming precedence everywhere.

Now she was in a back seat, Mrs. Parks said to me, when getting her room ready and wondering if she'd better change the rocker and toilet-set or not. When Rena was just Rena, a plain white bowl and pitcher were good enough for her, while Irene had the sprigged set. She had also a Boston rocker and white bed-spread, and Rena had a wooden rocker and pink-and-white spread, pieced and quilted herring-bone pattern by Mrs. Parks' mother and valuable for its antiquity, but not first cut like the Marseilles, Mrs. Parks said. Now, the sprigged set was in Rena's room with the Boston rocker and Marseilles spread and Irene had the herring-bone and wooden chair and white pitcher with a chip gone from its nose, and Beatrice Cenci was removed to her place over the mantel in the parlor. If Irene noticed the changes she gave no sign, and took her place gracefully as what Mrs. Parks called "second fiddle. " She arrived at four in the afternoon and immediately after tea which on her account was served at five she announced her intention to call at the McPherson place, if Rena would go with her. This was an ordeal from which Rena, who had not seen Rex, since his lovemaking, shrank; but if Irene went she must go too, and as Tom, who had stopped for supper at Mrs. Parks', was to accompany them she felt that with them both it would be comparatively easy to meet him. As yet Irene had had but little chance to talk, but out in the field her tongue was loosened and she asked innumerable questions concerning Rex's illness, with the air of one who had a right to know. It was Tom who answered the most of her questions, telling her first that Colin had covered up the well after he heard of Rex's adventure and the broken mirror.