When they got out of the car in front of their own door, Timothy, as a matter of course, expected to take the packages from the grocery store around to the servants’ entrance. But Elsie held out her hands for them. He relinquished them to her, plainly puzzled. Surely they were groceries!

When the two girls stood together in the big front hall Kate said briefly: “Good-bye. I’m going out into the garden.”

“Wait on the terrace outside the drawing-room and I’ll come with you,” Elsie responded, very unexpectedly. “First I’ll just run up to my room with these bundles. I know a lot about the kinds of flowers and things in the garden. Let me show it all to you.”

Kate was almost dazed by this suggestion. She had certainly been made to feel that Elsie was only too eager to get rid of her company. She stood where she had been left, wondering.

Why had Elsie taken lettuce and oil and bread and eggs and flour and nuts up to her room? What could she ever do with them up there?

“I’ll not ask her about it,” she promised herself, “just not a thing. But I shall write to Mother and the boys this morning. I won’t tell Mother how horrid Elsie is being, though. She would be too disappointed for me. And I’m really not having such a bad time as it might sound. But I’ll tell the boys just everything. They will be as mystified as I am. And to think I was dissatisfied with them for chums and wanted a girl! I’ll appreciate them when I get back, that’s certain. Oh, of course! Why didn’t I think at first! Elsie doesn’t trust me in the garden alone! That’s why she wants to come with me. She is afraid I won’t keep my promise. She’s afraid I will go ‘prowling’ around the orchard house. I just wish I hadn’t promised not to use the key. It would be something to do with this morning she’s spoiled. And something to write Mother about. And it might explain some of the mystery. There was a light last night. I saw it plain enough. The boys will be interested in all that. How soon can I expect letters from home, I wonder?”

With these thoughts Kate went out through the cool, shady drawing-room and on to the terrace. There in the shade of some trellised wisteria she sat down on a garden bench to wait for Elsie.

CHAPTER VII “EVEN SO——”

CHAPTER VII

“EVEN SO——”

 Prev. P 50/161 next