“And hasn’t she come back all morning?” demanded Mary Louise in dismay.
“Nary a sign of her.”
Mary Louise groaned. This was bad news—just what she had been fearing ever since her conversations with Jane and with her father. If Elsie had run away, there could be only one reason for her going: she must be guilty!
“I had better go right home and see my father,” she said nervously.
“You set right down and eat your dinner, Miss Mary Louise!” commanded Hannah. “You need food—and it’s right here. You ain’t a-goin’ to take no hot walk on an empty stomach! Besides, Elsie may come in any minute. She probably run down to show them colored people her pretty green dress.”
Mary Louise’s eyes brightened.
“Abraham Lincoln Jones’s family?” she inquired.
“Yeah. Elsie’s awful fond of them. They kind of pet her up, you know.”
Mary Louise smiled and sat down to her dinner. The food tasted good, for it was fresh from the garden, and Hannah was an excellent cook. But all the time she was eating she kept her eyes on the door, watching, almost praying that Elsie would come in.
“Maybe you had better not touch that room of Miss Grant’s,” she cautioned Hannah. “I think it might be better to leave it just as it is—for the sake of evidence. My clothes are in your old room now, and I’ll get them from there.”