“You did not know, but my Cousin Betty means that you have excited her beyond physical safety. She has a weak heart and has always been cautioned against undue agitation. It has been a sad business altogether and I wish you had had more confidence in me and come to me with that letter before you sent it. As for the ‘expenses’ of your Party—it is yours, dear, entirely—they are slight and my contribution to the general happiness. The only real thing that does matter, that will be most difficult to set straight is—your suspicion of old Ephraim. It was that I believe which angered Mrs. Calvert, far more than the money loss, although she is exact enough to keep a cent per cent account of all her own expenses—giving lavishly the meanwhile to any purpose she elects. Poor Ephraim! His heart is wellnigh broken, and old hearts are hard to mend!”
Dorothy was aghast.
“Does he know? Oh! has anybody told him that I suspected him?”
“Not in words; and at first he didn’t dream it possible that his honesty could be doubted. But—that’s the horrible part of suspicion—once started it’s incurable. Side glances, inuendoes, shrugged shoulders—Oh! by many a little channel the fact has come home to him that he is connected in all our minds with the loss of your one hundred dollars. Haven’t you seen? How he goes about with bowed head, with none of his quaint jests and ‘darkyisms, a sober, astonished old man whose world is suddenly turned upside down. That’s why he refused my money this morning which I offered him for his circus expenses. ‘No, Massa Seth, I’se gwine bide ter home.’ Yet of all the family of Deerhurst, before this happened, he would have been the most eager for the ‘Show.’ However, he refuses; and in a certain way maybe it is as well. Otherwise the place would be left unguarded. I should keep watch myself, if I didn’t think my Dorothy and her mates were better worth protecting than all Deerhurst.
“So now, shorten up that doleful countenance. The mischief that has been done must be undone. Aunt Betty must come home to a loving, forgiving child; old Ephraim must be reinstated in his own and everybody’s respect; and to do this—that money must be found! Now, for our friends—and brighter thoughts!”
“That money shall be found! I don’t know how, I cannot guess—but it shall!” answered Dorothy with great confidence, born of some sudden inspiration. The talk with the Master had lightened her heart and it was with a fine resolution to be everything that was dutiful and tender toward Aunt Betty that she left the barn and rejoined her mates.