Tears brimmed Elsie’s eyes. “Really? Do you want me to write? Of course I will. Let’s be best friends, chums. Even when I’m in California!”
Kate was embarrassed by the tears, but she was enraptured, too. She was tingling with happiness, for she was face to face with the vanishing comrade at last.
“Why didn’t we feel this way sooner?” she asked with reason.
“That was my fault. I’m sorry now.”
The girls had almost forgotten why they were watching the rain-curtained orchard. But they were recalled sharply to the affairs of the minute by Effie’s voice in the hall not far from their door. She was calling down a stairway to Isadora.
“Tell Julia Miss Frazier’s just come in and will be here for dinner, after all.”
The girls started. Elsie sprang to her feet. Kate still had her hand. “Don’t worry,” she said, quickly. “I will help you to get out without her seeing. You can go later to-night.”
“But Father’s note! Pinned to her pincushion! She will read it now! Oh, why did she come back!”
“I’ll go to her room and try to get the note before she notices it,” Kate offered. “You just wait here. I’ll do my best.”
“It’s on top of the tall bureau against the wall between the windows. Oh, do you suppose you can, Kate?”