"Goodness! What's the matter with the child?" gasped Janice.
"You got me," her cousin said gruffly. "I dunno what it's all about."
"Does your father know where you are, Lottie? Or Mamma 'Rill?"
Lottie's weeping became more abandoned.
"They don't care nothing more about me. They're not going to want me any more pretty soon. No, they're not! If—if you won't—won't have me, Janice Day, I sha'n't have a—a place in this—this world to go to."
CHAPTER IX
MRS. SCATTERGOOD TALKS
"What do you suppose is the matter with Lottie?" murmured Marty. "Is she sick or something?"
Suddenly Janice Day suspected the truth. She hugged little Lottie all the tighter, saying in reply to her cousin:
"Don't bother her now, Marty. She isn't sick, I'm sure. She'll be all right in a little while. She's come over here to spend the night with me, haven't you, Lottie?"