Odette laughed. “My case is even worse, for I am locked in.”
“Then when those old ones return we can visit, I hope.”
“I shall like that. Do you not think you’d better take in your dog? The police do not allow us to place anything on the window sill, you know.”
“But Pom Pom is not a thing,” returned Lucie laughing; “I consider him a person.”
Odette laughed in response but drew in her head and Lucie did the same. Paulette would not return for another hour, during which time would hang heavy on her hands. She wished that Paulette were not so particular, and that Odette’s guardians were not such exacting ones. “There could not be the slightest objection to my opening the door to Odette, that I know,” she said to Pom Pom. “If only she could get out I certainly would do it. Hark! What is that?”
Pom Pom pricked up his ears and growled at a sharp noise which seemed to come from the next room.
“Hush, Pom Pom; it is not possible to find out what that is when you make such a fuss,” said Lucie. “It cannot be a bird, yet what else? Certainly that is something tapping on the window. I will go and peep. Softly now, softly.”
She tiptoed to the next room, and saw pressed against the window pane the merry face of Odette. In another moment the window was opened and in slipped the little neighbor.
Lucie looked at her in amazement. “How in the world did you get here?” she asked.
Odette laughed. “It was not so difficult. I could not open my door and you were not permitted to open yours, so I told myself that one must contrive another way. There was nothing said about windows, you perceive, therefore I come by way of windows.”