“Elizabeth Harley, you be careful!” Nan warned her friend. “You don’t know for sure whether what you are saying is true or not. You’ll have everybody in trouble if you don’t watch out.”
“But Nan, I could just cry,” Bess protested. “He is such a nice person and so is she. And now it’s all spoiled.”
“Hush, Bess,” Nan spoke more softly now. Then she looked over at Walter as though begging him to leave them for a few moments which he did.
“Now, see here,” she spoke sternly to Bess when he disappeared. “If there is anything at all in what you say, and I doubt it, there is nothing in the world to be gained by crying and talking and interfering.”
“I’m not interfering!” Bess was indignant.
“Well, then talking about it,” Nan corrected herself. “We can’t do anything about it except sit around and wait. I don’t believe that Walker has gone away for the reason you say he has at all, and if he has, he’ll be back.”
“Well, if he hasn’t gone away for that reason, why has he gone at all?” Bess demanded.
“You can’t tell,” Nan answered lamely. Why was it, she thought, that she was forever running into the secret that she had promised Walker she would keep. She had done the same thing ten minutes ago with Walter. Now she was doing it with her best friend. “You’ve just got to wait and find out,” she added.
“Come on, Bess,” she made a decided effort to change the subject, “let’s go in and get the camera. I want to take some pictures of the boys. Anyway we are neglecting them by staying out here like this.”
“Neglecting them!” Bess exclaimed. “They’ve done nothing all day but sit around and loaf. They’re a lazy bunch, and we all had such high hopes.” She let her sentence die away tragically.