“I thought you and Nancy were rather on the outs,” Caroline suggested. “It seems odd to have you worrying about her like her maiden aunt.”
“You wait till you see her, you’ll be worried about her, too.”
“What’s wrong?” Dick asked quickly.
“She’s lost Sheila for one thing. That unspeakable Collier Pratt—I hope he chokes on his dinner to-night, and I hope it’s a rotten dinner—has taken the child away.”
“The devil he has.”
There was a step on the rickety stair.
“Hush! There she is now,” Caroline cried.
“No,” Betty said quietly, listening. “That’s not Nancy. That’s your brother, Caroline.”
“I haven’t heard his step for such a long time I’ve forgotten it,” Billy said.
“I haven’t heard it for a long time either,” Betty said, her face draining of its last bit of color.