[CHAPTER XXV]
LOTTIE'S CONFESSION
"MOTHER, Violet and I are very anxious to find out if it was really Lottie Medland who met with an accident in the Recreation Ground last night. May we go and inquire?" asked Ann, after breakfast, the following morning.
"Certainly," Mrs. Reed replied; "I would accompany you, but I have duties at home which I cannot very well put off. By the way, I'd rather you did not stop to look in the pawnshop window; your father will bring us news of the purse before the day is out."
"Very well, mother," acquiesced Ann.
"I shall only glance to see if the purse is there all right as we go by," said Violet.
And that was what she did. The one glance was sufficient to assure her that the purse had not been removed, and she was satisfied.
When the two girls arrived at the Medlands' home, Ann knocked gently upon the door, and her summons was answered more promptly than she had expected, not by Mrs. Medland, however, but by the little charwoman, Grace Jones.
"Oh, Miss Reed, is it you?" cried Grace, in a hushed voice; "I suppose you have heard about Lottie and have come to inquire for her. Please come inside."
"Then it was. Lottie," Violet whispered to Ann, as she followed her into the kitchen. Aloud she said: "Is Lottie much hurt?"