Several of the girls walked rapidly up to her. They were smiling disagreeably.
“Can’t you keep her at home?” asked one of them.
“Think she’ll marry him?” demanded another.
Patience, completely taken aback, glanced helplessly from one to the other.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Come, Patita,” murmured Rosita, on the verge of tears.
Manuela exclaimed: “You are fiends, fiends!” and walked away.
“Mean? Do you mean to say she got off without you knowing it?”
“Knowing what?” A horrible presentiment assailed Patience. Her fingers jerked and her breath came fast.
“Why,” said Panchita McPherson, brutally, “your mother was in here Saturday night with her young man and regularly turned the town upside down. They were thrown out of three saloons. Can’t you keep her at home?”