“Good morning, Miss Baldwin. You are an early riser,” she said.
“Yes, Madam. I am used to getting up early. May I go out upon the grounds?” Beth asked.
“Surely. Take a run about the estate. There is just frost enough in the air to make it invigorating.”
Then, as Beth turned toward the door, she heard the madam say to Cynthia:
“There is dust on the balustrade. See my handkerchief, girl? Begin at the top of the flight and come down carefully. I will have thoroughness from you girls, or I will have nothing.”
Beth heard Cynthia utter a faint groan. Then she slipped out of the door into the open air.
CHAPTER XIV
A GREAT DEAL TO LEARN
Molly Granger possessed at least one talent besides the ability to extract fun out of most things. She could draw quite remarkably for a girl who had had so little instruction; and made many really clever cartoons in black and white.
Over her dressing-table was a long study in feline humor; as Beth called it when she first observed the piece, “a yard of cats.”
“Isn’t it cute?” she cried. “You never did it?”