At this her eyes fairly sparkled for a moment. Then she shook her head.
"I can't do it, girls, much as I'm crazy to have that pen. Honest, I can't. I'm not teasing you about it this time, either. I really have discovered something quite important, and it just happened by accident, too. But Monsieur was so upset about it, and asked me so politely not to say anything to any one, that I just feel it wouldn't be right. I think I took him terribly by surprise. I don't know what it all means yet myself. There's something awfully mysterious about things over at Louis's. And really, you've been so decent to me lately that I'd tell you if I could, even without the pen."
Well, that was too much for me. I knew she meant every word she said, and I could understand, too, why she felt she couldn't tell us. So I just gave her the pen, anyway, and she was so happy and grateful. She said:
"It's all right, girls. You're trumps! And I'll do something for you yet, never you fear."
But only to think that it was the Imp who made the first real, important discovery about this mystery! Well, things do happen queerly. I wonder what in the world she can have discovered?
CHAPTER VIII THE PORTRAIT OF MYSTERY
It was well into April before Louis came back to school, looking a trifle thin and pale, but otherwise not impaired by his serious accident. Carol and Sue traveled back and forth with him on the trolley several times, but never once picked up courage to ask him the question, the answer to which they were burning to know,—why had he been afraid of the strange portrait in Monsieur's room?