“She’ll think you two are engaged, Jane,” teased Hope, “if you go in together.”
“Then she’ll get fooled,” returned the other girl laughingly.
The couple were absent for perhaps five minutes. When they came out of the tent Jane dashed down the hill to the road.
“The gypsy told her that her class ring is in my car,” explained Norman to the others. “The one she lost, you remember? She said it’s under the seat.”
“I could have suggested that she look there myself,” remarked Max. “Only I thought, of course, that she already had.... Shall I try my luck next, or will one of you girls go?”
“I’d love to go,” offered Hope Dorsey. “I simply can’t wait. By the way, did she think you two were engaged?”
“No, she didn’t. She’s pretty wise, after all. She told me some astounding things. One was that a relation had just died—my uncle did, you know—and that we’re going to get some money.... I hope that part’s true.... You have to hand it to her. I don’t believe it’s all just the bunk.”
Hope ran into the tent, and while she was gone Jane returned triumphantly from the car with her lost ring. Mary Louise’s eyes flashed with excitement: perhaps the gypsy was really possessed of second sight. Oh, if she could only solve that mystery at Dark Cedars!
Mary Louise was last of all the group to enter the fortune teller’s tent. The woman was seated on the ground with a dirty pack of cards in her hands. She indicated that the girl should sit down beside her and gave her the cards to shuffle.
“I’m really not interested in my fortune half so much as I am in a mystery I’m involved in,” explained Mary Louise. She paused, wondering whether the gypsy would understand what she was talking about. Perhaps she ought to use simpler language.