“What a good thing Jandy Mac didn’t come back while you were having measles!” Jen had seen the writing on the letter as she handed it to Joan. “It would have been jolly awkward, wouldn’t it?”
Joan looked at her in amusement. “Do you really think we left it to chance, Jenny-Wren? Of course Mother wrote and told Jandy about the measles.”
“Oh, I see! She told Jandy to stay in Scotland till you were all right again?”
“She didn’t put it that way. She said, if Jandy had to go back to Australia on the day she’d planned, we were afraid we shouldn’t see her again, as Joy and I would still be in quarantine. Jandy wrote that she must see us once more, so she would put off her journey and stay with her aunts till we could have her here to say good-bye.”
“Because once she goes to Australia and marries her cousin, it may be years before she comes back,” Jen agreed. “Is she coming now?”
“She’d like to come, but it’s awkward.” And Joan looked worried. “Mother wants to take Joy to the sea for a few weeks, to get braced up before the winter. She really had a very bad time, with pneumonia on top of measles. I know!” as Jen began to speak. “It was her own fault, but that doesn’t alter the result. She isn’t very fit, and Mother thinks it would do her good to go away.”