"What—what made you call her up?" she faltered.
"Because I couldn't help it. I was forced to."
And Mary explained the further ambitions of Aunt Caroline and what they had led to.
"Oh, it was shocking, Nell! What did she mean? How dared she do it?"
"I—I—— Oh, Mary!"
"But how could she?" persisted Mary. "That's what I don't understand. Even if my voice sounded strange I don't see how she could. Why did she deny that she ever wrote a reference?"
Nell Norcross pressed a hand to her lips to keep them from quivering. In her eyes there was something that suggested she had seen a ghost. Slowly she began to rock to and fro in her chair, making a gurgling in her throat. Then she whimpered.
"B-because she never wrote it!" she moaned.
"Why—Nell. Oh, Heavens!"
Mary suddenly seemed to have become as frightened as Nell. She glanced quickly over her shoulder, as though expecting to face an eavesdropper. Then she sprang up, went to the door and locked it.