Girls Together by Amy Ella Blanchard — Read

THE middle of October saw Miss Nelson and Val established in New York, and everything in good running order. Theo hired a piano and made diligent use of it; Val was much interested in her studies, and Nannie was an indefatigable student at the League. She had made much progress during the past season, which she had spent at a summer school, and was more than ever in love with her work. The boys came and went, bringing their trials, their hopes, and their fears to a sympathetic group of hearers. Mr. Smith, Val's guardian, appeared at odd times, frequently bearing off the whole party to the theatre or the opera, sometimes to dinner or to drive, and once or twice insisting upon every one's accompanying him to his country home, Lyndehurst. It was there that Thanksgiving was spent, and a merry day they made of it.

Theo and Jack alone felt troubled; the former from the fact that Jack showed evidences of not having outgrown his boyish fancy for his friend's sister, and it irked Theo to be made conscious of a devotion which she did not care to consider; and Jack, poor fellow, felt a growing uneasiness on account of his own business affairs. He anticipated that there was trouble in store for him, that his uncle's actions warranted such a suspicion he was positive, and he determined that the first of the year must decide how much or how little he would be affected. But these clouds did not more than appear above the horizon, and certainly did not affect the general sunniness of their daily life.