“Chloe, would you care if you knew that I had written my Daddy ALL about you?” She didn’t wait for a reply. “You see, I have, and I hope you won’t think I’ve broken my word. I haven’t told another living soul and shan’t. But Daddy is interested in your case and says he will help. The night you told us your story, I swore never to quit until we knew who you really were but I didn’t know where to start. That same night I wrote Daddy. He can do anything. Already he is planning what to do and how to do it.”
But Mimi quit there and kept the contents of the letter secret. After asking Chloe several pointed questions, the answers to which were not satisfactory, she talked slowly toward the library to write Daddy in the quiet where she could think clearly.
As she passed College Hall the smell of black coffee came floating out. Cram week was causing a panic Ghostly figures with notebooks, unfinished themes, and reference books had been slipping through the corridors after lights out. Laggards were drinking strong coffee now trying to keep awake long enough to learn a few more answers. The gym was deserted except at class periods. Sue had cut practice hours twice in a row. Betsy was “boning” as she had never done before but the College girls were the busier.
Let them slave Mimi thought. Thank goodness she had caught up with lessons while she was quarantined.
She ignored the librarian as she entered. With a grand disregard for the cramming going on all about her, Mimi unscrewed the top of her fountain pen. This letter to Daddy is far more important. It is the most important document I’ve ever written. I must think straight. I must tell every little detail that might help, the tattooed figures, the cackling laugh. But first I must answer his questions.
Unfolding the fat letter and rearranging the pages carefully so that the questions were on top, Mimi shook her pen twice and began to write feverishly.
CHAPTER XVI
THE LAKE FREEZES OVER
When the rising bell rang, Sue counted three, then kicked off the covers. She sprang out of bed to pull down the window leaving Betsy shivering.
“Cruel world.” Betsy groaned wriggling further down in bed and reaching for the covers.
“Cruel nothing,” Sue retorted. “You fresh air fiends will be the death of me yet. Pick the coldest night of the year to throw the window to the top.”