“You little fool!” exclaimed Mrs. Fishberry in exasperation. “You’re acting like an idiot. That girl was no friend to you.”
“She was the best friend I ever had!” cried Helen, vehemently.
“Oh, yeah?” snarled her companion. She was so irritated that she gave up her pretense of being the kind aunt. “And you were too dumb to see through those scheming Carltons!”
“What do you mean?” demanded Helen, up in arms at the slur to her new friends.
“They were trying to pull the wool over your eyes, of course! So that you wouldn’t remember anything.”
“What do you mean by ‘pull the wool over my eyes?’”
“It’s just an expression, Miss Dumb-bell. I see that I have to explain everything to you, as if you were a child six years old. I’ll have to tell you in words of one syllable:
“Linda Carlton was doing stunts with that plane of hers near to the ground. Somebody, never mind who, but somebody we know, saw her. And she crashed and hit you! There wasn’t any car driving along the road at all. So she made up the story and got her friend to swear that it was true!”
Helen’s dark eyes were blazing with righteous anger.
“Don’t you dare to say Linda Carlton would lie!” she exclaimed. “She’s the soul of honor, and so is Dot Crowley!”