“It certainly does. Wait. I’m going back a minute.” Sarita knelt again at the opening and thrust her head within, to Leslie’s disapproval. She followed her, catching hold of her dress and looking at the rocks above her to see if any more had been loosened. She was relieved when Sarita drew back again. “Too dark to see anything, Leslie,” she reported when they were outside.
They covered the rest of the way to Peggy’s house with very little conversation. “That was a stranger,” Sarita commented.
“The other voice was like the Count’s,” said Leslie.
“Shall we tell Peggy?”
“I suppose so,” said Leslie doubtfully. She was thinking about that. What Jack suspected she would keep to herself for the present, but Peggy had a right to know the secret of her Retreat.
Peggy was delighted to see them and took them to her room for what she called the “gorgeous display,” some very pretty but suitable frocks for a young girl about to mingle with others who had them. “It is going to be quite a house party,” Peggy said, “and a few of them may stay for some time, Mother says. It’s awfully interesting, though ‘royalty’ doesn’t mean so much any more. We had a princess once while we were in Florida and she had wonderful jewels. Mother thinks that there is one girl about my age. You simply must come over, girls!”
“Clothes, my dear Peggy. Wouldn’t we look great to a grand duchess, in this rig, for instance?”
Leslie turned slowly around, with the air of a fashion show model, displaying a sweater much the worse for wear and her oldest gym bloomers. “I really meant to put on something better, like Sarita, but I thought that I could sneak up to your room without your mother’s seeing me, and we want to go out in the boat afterwards, or we did want to go.”
“I mind the maids more than I do your mother,” laughed Sarita. “The last time, you should have seen the scorn with which your mother’s maid looked at me.”
“Pooh! What’s the difference? You girl’s always look like somebody nice, no matter what you have on. Jack says so, too. But what has happened to change you about going out in the boat? Is it going to be bad weather?” Peggy glanced toward the window, where sunshine was driving the mists away.