"I have her permission to tell you, Polly dear, because she wishes to have your advice, as you have more imagination about getting out of difficulties than the rest of us; but you have to promise first never to mention it to anybody, not to a single other member of the Camp Fire Club or to Rose or even Donna."
Polly laughed, putting her arm lightly across Betty Ashton"s shoulder.
"What are you talking about, child?" she demanded. "I don"t particularly like that suggestion of my talent for getting out of sc.r.a.pes; but if the sc.r.a.pe has anything to do with Betty Ashton, then all my talent is at her disposal, of course."
"But it has nothing to do with me, at least not in the way you mean,"
the other girl replied, too much in earnest to be amused even for the moment. "It has to do with a girl whom you have never liked very much and she has never liked you. But she has been my friend and I do care for her. And moreover she is a member of our Sunrise Hill Camp Fire Club and we promised to live up to Sylvia"s motion."
"Edith Norton?" Polly queried. "She must be in trouble if she is willing to confide in me."
But Betty"s expression suddenly silenced her. Always Betty Ashton had been the most popular among her special group of Camp Fire girls. At first chiefly for her beauty, her wealth, the prominent position of her family and for her own generosity and charm. More recently, however, since the girl had met her own disasters so courageously, a new element had come into her influence and the affection she inspired. It was a quality that Polly with all her cleverness would never create, one of steadfastness under fire. Perhaps it was one of the last characteristics that one might have looked for in the early days of the Princess. And yet it will always be found in truly aristocratic natures. When life is flowing smoothly, when the days go by with no special demands made upon them, these persons may have many little weaknesses. Yet when the special occasion arises theirs is the faithfulness and fort.i.tude. So while Betty had neither the sound judgment of Sylvia Wharton nor the brilliant fancy of Polly, it was to her that the other girls usually made their first appeal in any dilemma or distress.
At this moment if they had not been together on the street Polly would have liked to embrace her. The cold air had brought Betty"s color back; she still wore the little lace cap under her old fur hat, but the edging made a lovely frame for her face, and her hair was already growing so that the curls showed underneath, like a baby"s.
"Yes, it is Edith," Betty answered seriously. "And she is in a difficulty that you could never have imagined of one of our Camp Fire girls. You know she has been going a good deal with that man whom none of us like until she thinks she is really in love with him. And it seems that Edith believes that he does not care a great deal about her.
So she, poor thing, has been trying her best to make him care. She has bought herself a lot of clothes that she cannot afford, for you know she gets such a small salary at the shop where she works."
"Is that all?" Polly demanded. "It is awfully foolish of her, of course, to be so extravagant, but it isn"t such a dreadful crime. And as I suppose she has charged what she got, she can just save up and pay back her bills by degrees."
Betty shook her head. "Don"t be a goose, dear. Edith can"t charge things in Woodford. She hasn"t any credit in the shops like your mother and mine have. She is only a poor girl working for her own support, with her family not living here and with no position when they were. No, you see she borrowed the money from the woman she was working for without telling her. She meant to pay it back of course, only, only----"
"You mean she stole it from her?" Polly exclaimed in a hushed tone.
This was a good deal worse than anything which she had antic.i.p.ated.
She had always considered Edith Norton foolish and vain; but then surely the Camp Fire had helped her, had given her the ideals and the training that she had never learned at home. Betty was crying so bitterly and so openly that Polly felt she must comfort her friend first before criticising or attempting to suggest a solution to the other girl"s problem.
"But, dear, if you wish Edith"s trouble kept a secret, you must not weep over her, just as you get home," she protested. "Don"t you know that everybody in the house will be demanding to know what the matter is at once, and the Professor can hardly be kept from weeping with you?
I can"t think of anything to suggest to Edith except that she confess what she has done and ask Madame to let her return the money by working for it."
"I told her that, but she did not believe that she would be forgiven,"
Betty explained. "Oh, if I only had just a little of the money I used to throw away! I don"t mind being poor so much myself, Polly; it is when I so want to do for other people."
"You don"t have to tell me that, Princess," her friend replied quietly.
"But, dear, this time I am glad you have not the money. Because you know it would not be right for you just to give Edith the money and have her give it back without any one"s knowing. At least, I don"t quite think so. And yet I am awfully sorry that Edith and I should both in our different ways have broken our Camp Fire law. And I will do anything I can think of to help her. Do you know, dear, how long she has been in this difficulty?
"Oh, I think about two weeks," Betty answered. "But she only confided in me yesterday. It seems that she has tried several ways of getting the money and has attempted to borrow it. She thought maybe I could lend it to her, and I may be able to later on, only I would have to tell mother some reason why I needed twenty-five dollars all of a sudden from our small supply."
"No, you must not. Maybe I may be able to help. Or we may persuade Edith to confess. I believe she will when she thinks more about our old Camp Fire teachings. Anyhow, as we are at home now, let us wait and talk it all over again tonight after we get to bed. It is then, of course, that I do my most brilliant thinking."
So with this in mind, obliterating all other thoughts at their hour of retiring, for the first evening since their fright ten days before, neither Polly nor Betty remembered the locking of their outside door upon getting into bed.
And this time it was Polly O"Neill who was aroused first a short while after midnight by the slow turning of their doork.n.o.b and then the sense of an almost noiseless figure entering their bedroom.
Immediately she awoke Betty by suddenly calling her name aloud, and at the same instant sprang out of bed, again touching the electric b.u.t.ton and flooding the room with revealing light.
CHAPTER XX
THE BEGINNING OF LIGHT
"Why, why!" exclaimed Polly in surprise and consternation, standing perfectly still with her hand upraised toward the light, too puzzled to let it drop down at her side.
But with a little, warning cry Betty had called to her and almost at the same moment was across the room, with her arms about a tall, slight figure.
"Mother, mother," she whispered quietly, "wake up. You have gotten up out of your bed and wandered into Polly"s and my room. And you have frightened us nearly to death! Dear me, you have not walked in your sleep for years, have you?"
At Betty"s first words following the stream of light, Mrs. Ashton had opened her eyes with returning consciousness until now she appeared almost entirely wide awake. And an expression both of fear and annoyance crossed her face.
"You poor children, so I am your ghost and your burglar," she declared, "and I believed it was you who were having nightmares! I am awfully sorry. Betty knows I used to have this unfortunate habit of strolling about the house in my sleep long ago. But I am quite sure that I have not done it for several years now. The truth is I have not yet gotten over the nervous shock of Betty"s being brought home to me and my not knowing how seriously she was injured for such a time; it seemed an eternity."
Betty had thrown a shawl over her mother"s shoulders, as she was clad only in her night-dress, and she and Polly slipped into their dressing gowns.
"Wasn"t it odd, though, mother, your coming in here both times? I wonder if you had me on your mind and wanted to see how I was. But you did not seem to. You kept groping your way toward that old closet as though you wished to rummage about in it. But do come and let me take you back to bed now, and I will stay with you so you will behave yourself and give Polly a chance to rest."
For quite five minutes after the two had gone, Polly lay awake. There were really so many things to consider, because, of course, when one has too active an imagination it is apt to lead one into trouble.
First, she must apologize to Anthony Graham for her totally unfounded suspicion of him. And then, thank Heaven, she had not breathed the suggestion aloud! Yet just for a moment she had wondered if Edith Norton could have--but it was not true and of course never could have been.
Then a third idea. What could be hidden away in that old closet of so great value or interest that Mrs. Ashton turned toward it in her sleeping hours, when her subconscious mind must be directing her footsteps? No wonder that Betty was puzzled and annoyed over the secrets of the old room. Naturally as a visitor in the Ashton home it would be exceedingly bad manners, if nothing worse, for her to try to find out anything that her hostess wished to keep concealed. Yet just as Polly lost her train of thought she remembered wishing that Betty might make the discovery for herself, since most certainly then she would confide in her.
The next day being Friday, Polly went to her own home to spend the week-end. And quite by accident she and Mollie came in together for a few moments on Sunday afternoon and went directly to Betty"s room without letting her know of their approach.
As they knocked and had no answer, Polly, feeling entirely at home, pushed the door open.
"Betty, child, don"t you want to see us?" she demanded. "I know I promised to give you a rest until Monday, but Mollie and I could not bear to spend a whole Sunday afternoon without you."
And at this, Betty Ashton appeared from the darkness of the big closet at the farthest end of her bedroom. She wore a lavender cashmere frock with a broad velvet belt and a lace cap with lavender ribbons. But the cap was much awry, so that her hair was tumbled carelessly over her forehead, even showing the slight scar underneath, which usually she was so careful to hide, and her cheeks were a good deal flushed. There was no doubt that she was greatly interested or excited over something.
"Mollie and Polly, I am glad," she avowed. "I was just needing some one to talk to and to ask questions of most dreadfully. Mother has gone out driving this afternoon, and as I was alone it occurred to me it might be fun to rummage about in this old closet and see whether it really concealed any treasures. After our belief that a burglar was trying to enter it, I thought it might be just as well for me to find out what it contained."
"Does your mother know?" Polly inquired, and could hardly have explained to herself just why she asked the question.
"No. I did not think of investigating it before she left. But of course she won"t care. Why should she? The boxes have nothing in them but old books and rubbish. But this trunk--I can"t quite understand about some of the things I have found in it. Maybe you can help me guess."
And before either of the other girls knew what she intended doing, Betty was dragging the shaky trunk out of the closet into the greater brightness of the room, Mollie rushing to her a.s.sistance as soon as possible. Yet for some reason unknown to herself, Polly hesitated.
She did not even move forward when Betty and Mollie dropped down on their knees before it, although she did observe that the trunk was locked, but that the hinges at the back had rusted and fallen off, so that Betty had gotten into it in that way.
Evidently the things at the top had already been taken out inside the closet, for Betty was now reaching down toward the bottom and bringing out what looked like a trousseau of baby clothes--her own or d.i.c.k"s, they could not yet tell which.
The little dresses were yellow and fragile with age; the long blue coat had faded; most of the little shoes and flannels had been worn.
"I wish you would not look through those things until your mother gets back, Betty," Polly said rather irritably.
But both her sister and friend glanced up at her in surprise.
"What is the possible harm? Mother couldn"t mind. There is certainly no reason why I should not look at my own clothes or at d.i.c.k"s. It"s queer I never happen to have seen them before."
"Did your mother never have any other children, Betty?" Mollie inquired, and the other girl shook her head.