“No, I can remember it! That’s the kind of memory I have and so had my father. He had a photographic mind and I seem to have one too. Come on, Mary Louise, and go with me.”
Josie’s keen eye had seen from the first that something was worrying her dear friend and she divined that her advice and sympathy were wanted and that Mary Louise had been disappointed to find Elizabeth in the shop. She had also detected a shade of annoyance at Irene’s entrance. It had taken sharp perception indeed to realize this, for Mary Louise’s manner had been as courteous as ever with the other girls and her greeting as affectionate. But little escaped the sharp eyes and ears of Josie. The warp and woof of the lives of her acquaintances were as clearly defined in her mind as the net of the curtains she was to match. Something was wrong with the tapestry Fate was working on the life of dear Mary Louise. Josie knew it for sure and she determined to find out if possible and to help her if she could.
CHAPTER III
JOSIE INTERVENES
“What is it, honey?” asked Josie as they left the rickety old building, the second floor of which was occupied by the Higgledy Piggledy Shop.
“What’s what?” asked Marie Louise.
“What’s the matter?”
“The matter?”
“Yes, honey, you can’t fool your great-aunt Josie! There is something that is making you pale and thin and sad-eyed—something that keeps your eyes swimming in tears half the time. There is no use in pretending you didn’t come down to the shop to see me alone if possible and talk over something that is worrying you to death. Now is there?”
Mary Louise smiled, “Well—y-e-e-s! But how did you know?”