It was all very fascinating. Nick led Kate’s mind a race, and she felt as though she were “expanding.” She called it “expanding” when telling her mother of it later. Why, Nick did to you exactly what his book did, pushed roofs skyward and walls horizon-ward. And all the while he was so jolly. He laughed and made you laugh often, laughter with a special quality of joy in it.
But suddenly, right in the midst of everything, he looked at his watch. “Do you know, it’s after five,” he said, “and I——”
Kate interrupted what he was about to say. “After five! Why, Mother may be here already! I forgot about time! How could I!”
“Your mother? Here!”
“Yes, I telegraphed her to come.”
Kate had quite forgotten her anxieties about Elsie, and how much she had imagined her in need of Katherine’s sympathy and help. Now everything came back with a rush. “I must run.”
But Nick caught at her hand before she could run. “Kate!” he said, excitedly. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Then he became calm, but still held Kate back by the hand. He spoke very earnestly.
“Bring her out here. Your aunt isn’t at home. No one need know. I must see her. Will you bring her? Tell her it may be our very last chance to meet ever. Tell her that and make her come.”
Kate looked into the face so suddenly become passionately earnest and said in surprise, “But of course she will want to come.”
But as she sped through the orchard it occurred to her that she had solved nothing, got nowhere, or almost nowhere, in the mystery. What was Nick doing in the orchard house? Was he a fugitive from the law? Somehow, though she had begun to wonder again, she was not a bit bothered. Nick was Nick. Who wanted more?