“No. And she has read the letter. But she is glad, Elsie. There’s just to be no trouble about your getting away with your father at all.”
“Didn’t I tell you!” Elsie exclaimed. “It’s just as I knew. She is glad to be rid of me.”
“We must plan quickly, though. How will you get out? It’s so dark now you can’t see the orchard well at all. Let’s plan.”
Bertha was there, flushed and nervous. That morning Elsie had found it necessary to confide the secret of her father’s being in the orchard house to Bertha, if he was to have any breakfast or lunch that day at all. They had let the food supply get very low, she and her father, because, until he had looked in at the party, they had expected to fly last night. Bertha was horrified at finding herself part of the intrigue, but there was no help for it since Elsie could always “Wind her around her little finger.” Now, the almost distracted maid promised to stand by Elsie until the end. It would be the end for her as well as Elsie, for she would certainly lose her place to-morrow, and her character with it. For if Miss Frazier did not become aware for herself that Bertha had taken food to Nick in the orchard house this morning, and protected Elsie from the betrayal of her plans, Bertha meant to confess these things to her.
The three in conclave now decided that Elsie should go, after Kate and Miss Frazier were in the drawing-room, to the window seat on the stair landing. There she could conceal herself behind the curtains with her suitcase until Kate came out into the hall below, on some pretext to be found by her, and whistled softly. The whistle would mean that Katherine had come in and that Elsie could slip away to the orchard house unobserved.
All this was rather fun for Kate except for the sorry fact that when it was over she would have lost a comrade. To help stage a real runaway—well, it doesn’t happen every day that one may be so at the centre of exciting events.
With Bertha’s help Kate was dashing into her organdie while Elsie stood in a balcony window watching the orchard. Elsie had come in to be near Kate until the very last minute. But when a knock suddenly sounded on Kate’s door Elsie wisely whisked away into her own room.
“Come,” Kate called in a tremulous voice. Was it her mother? No, it was Aunt Katherine, and very fortunate it was that Elsie had been spry in her whisking.
“I see you are dressed,” Miss Frazier said. “Come down, with me, then, and we will be together in the drawing-room when your mother arrives. I have ordered dinner delayed for her.”
Kate thought quickly. “Just a minute,” she said. “There’s something in Elsie’s room I need. Will you wait?”