"Yes, mamma. I——"
"What has happened, child? Tell me, quick! I am nearly dead with worry.
Are you all right?"
"Of course, mamma. I——"
"But where are you? Where were you all night? Are you sure everything is all right?"
Never had Gloria known her extremely clear-headed mother to be so wildly disturbed, so nervously incoherent.
"I have told you I am all right. I am up in the mountains, at our log house. Didn't Mr. Gratton tell you——?"
"Mr. Gratton?" Mrs. Gaynor was only more mystified. "He has told me nothing; I haven't seen him. I tried to phone him—oh, I have phoned everybody we know!—and he is out of town, and——"
But Gloria, panic-stricken by something her mother had said, cried:
"You have phoned everybody! Oh, mamma! What—what do you mean?"
"When you didn't come in last night—I have been crazy with worry! I thought you might be spending the night with one of your friends; I thought that maybe something had happened and it was being kept from me. I rang up Georgia Stark and Mildred Carter and the Farrilees—and even the emergency hospitals. I thought——"