So Nell told Gertrude that she would certainly come down by the cars on Saturday evening; and even while she was sending the message a bright idea came to her: she would write a note to Mr. Brunsen, and send him back his money and the portrait from Bratley. She could then put Bratley at the top of her letter, and he would never dream of looking for her at Camp’s Gulch.
This plan soothed her considerably. She wrote a frosty little note, saying that she had found the case and its contents on the morning after he left her grandfather’s house on Blue Bird Ridge, and had been unable to return them to him before, owing to her ignorance of his address.
But she was dispirited and unlike herself for days afterwards. It is never an easy thing to readjust one’s likes and dislikes at a moment’s notice; and the shattering of Nell’s secret idol cost her many a bitter pang.
CHAPTER XVII
One-sided Confidences
NELL had quite an ovation of welcome when she reached Bratley on Saturday evening. Stout Mrs. Nichols was at the depot to welcome her guest. Mrs. Sam Peters was there also, one baby in her arms, another toddler clinging to her skirt, and two other small folk in the background. The baggage-clerk received her with his melancholy smile and the flourish of his cap usually reserved for railway inspectors and other official personages.
“Why, it is just like coming home!” exclaimed Nell, ecstatically, as she kissed all the Peters children, and tried not to notice how far from clean their faces were.
“That is just how we want you to feel,” replied Mrs. Nichols, who was wheezing and puffing more than ever from excitement and delight, as she prepared to carry her visitor off in triumph.
“I must go and speak to Gertrude first,” Nell said, breaking away from the others and making her way into the office.
Gertrude was hard at work, and could only look up, nod, and leave her welcome until later, when she had a moment’s breathing space.