As the girls looked toward the house they saw a figure standing behind the curtains of the window over the front door.
"There she is now," the girls cried.
"Wouldn't you like to go inside?" said Nora to Edith.
"I don't know that I'm really anxious to," replied the latter.
"Oh, I am," said Nora, and a moment later she cried out to Frances, "Frances, you are rather clever, can't you suggest some way by which I can find my way inside that house? Wouldn't one of your great aunts give me an introduction to Mme. du Launy? I'm just dying to see what is inside those brick walls."
"No," responded Frances, rather scornfully; "if they could they wouldn't, but I'm sure they haven't kept up any acquaintance with Mme. du Launy."
"Well," replied Nora, "I'll find a way. Mark my words, before the present crescent moon is old I shall have at least a speaking acquaintance with Mme. du Launy. Poor thing, she must be very lonely."
"I don't believe she'd appreciate your society particularly, Nora, for one thing you're pretty young," said Edith.
"No matter, I'm going to know her. Come, Brenda, I'll confide in you."
So Brenda and Nora walked down the street, leaving the other girls to wonder what they were planning. This was by no means the first time that the girls at Miss Crawdon's school had discussed Mme. du Launy and her affairs. Indeed, each set of girls had wondered about her and her beautiful furniture, and her music box that played a hundred airs, and all her foreign treasures, and her possessions lost nothing in splendor as the girls told what they had heard about them.