“Elizabeth Harley,” Nan exclaimed, “if you make that remark again, I’ll never speak to you as long as I live.” Nan was cross and irritable these days, because nothing seemed to be going right and she felt that if she hadn’t said anything about the ring in the first place, everyone would be enjoying themselves.
“But Nan,” Bess put her arm around her friend. “I don’t mean it all the way you think. I haven’t liked the cook ever since that first day when he had a fight with Mrs. O’Malley and she’s such a dear too.”
“Oh, but Bess, you know how that happened,” Nan protested. “Mrs. O’Malley went into the kitchen that he had run for some twenty years and tried to tell him what to do. He just wouldn’t stand for it.”
“Even then, I don’t like him.” Bess persisted. “He’s been horrid and mean to all of us ever since we’ve been here. I think he stole your ring, and if you don’t do something about it, I’m going to tell Mr. MacKenzie myself.”
“See here, Bess,” Nan was very serious now. “If you don’t keep quiet about what you have just been saying to me, I’m going to be very angry. I don’t want suspicions being cast on people who haven’t done anything, and I don’t think he has, honestly.”
Bess paused and thought before she said anything further.
“And Bess,” Nan said more softly now, “don’t resent the way I’ve talked to you these days. I feel very troubled.”
Bess felt badly too now. It wasn’t very often that Nan let her temper get away with her, and since she had, Bess thought, she must be more troubled than any of us realize. So the subject was dropped between the two friends.
But Bess’s remarks had done their work. When Nan was alone, the thought of what Bess had said, came back to her again and again. She dismissed it impatiently at first, but then little things about the cook began to come to her attention constantly.
Finally she determined to do something about it all and so, one day when she was alone, she went back to the kitchen.