The girl was limping down the road toward the Belden House. “Wait!” Betty called, running after her. “It’s Miss Wales. I must speak to you a minute.”
The girl paused, glanced around as if counting the chances of escape, and waited.
“Aren’t you hurt?” Betty demanded as she came closer. “We thought the fall would surely stun you. Your hands must be terribly cut.”
“Oh, not much,” the girl answered, putting them resolutely behind her. “I had on gloves. And there was a little snow on the ground close to the house, to break the fall. You want to know who I am, Miss Wales, and what I was doing in the Morton so late. Well, it’s all very simple. I’m Helena Mason. I was up talking to Esther Bond and we got interested and didn’t hear either of the bells. I hated to bother any one to let me out, so I told Esther I’d slide down the fire-escape—it’s good practice for a fire. And because it stuck for a minute some silly girl imagined I needed help and called you. I’m sorry you were disturbed. The night-watchman will be along soon—if I can’t make some girl hear me right away and let me in. Won’t you please go back now?”
Betty was shivering with cold. “Yes, and you must come with me,” she said. “You limp dreadfully. Waiting out in the cold after a fall like that would be positively dangerous. The girl who rooms next to me is away, and you can go to bed there.”
“But I’d much rather go home,” Helena demurred. “I won’t have to wait but a minute, and I’m not at all cold.”
“You’re shivering this minute,” Betty told her, “and your hands are cut so that they’re bleeding on to the ground. You must come and let me fix them for you.” And putting her arm through Helena’s she hurried her back to Morton Hall.
Helena submitted in silence while Betty bathed and bandaged the torn hands, and helped her to undress.
“Now shall I tell Esther to come and say good-night?” she asked. “I’m going to tell the girl who discovered you that you’re really all right—we couldn’t believe our eyes when you got up and walked off—and I’ll go on up and tell Esther too. She must have seen you fall and she’ll be worrying.”
“Oh, no, she didn’t,” Helena assured her. “Please don’t disturb her, Miss Wales. I’m sure she’s sound asleep. And Miss Wales—will you have to tell the other girl—the one who saw me—who I am? I’d so much rather not. People will laugh at me so.”