Billie shook her head.
“Paul has been a lamb. I overheard him invite her to the hop at Boxton on the third.”
“I don’t know.” Billie spoke wearily. Her knee was beginning to hurt again—and the tennis tournament was only a little over two weeks away! “Unless there was bad news in the letter I gave her to-day,” she added. “I thought there was at the time. Now I am practically sure of it.”
CHAPTER XVIII
THE GIFT CLUB
Upon the matter of the mysterious letter and its contents, Edina Tooker maintained a stubborn silence. Even Billie Bradley, with all her cajolery, could not win a single word of explanation.
“There wasn’t nothing—anything—in it you’d be interested to hear,” she persisted. “And there on the dock I acted pretty silly. I’d take it a great favor if you’d forget about it, Billie, and not ask me no—any—more questions.”
What could Billie do after that but acquiesce? However, though the topic of the letter disappeared from her conversations with Edina, she was not at all satisfied with the girl’s explanation, or rather, lack of explanation.
That the contents of the mysterious letter had come as a severe shock to Edina, Billie had not the slightest doubt. Proof of it had been in her face during that one unguarded moment beside the campfire; further proof, if any were needed, had been forthcoming during that other unguarded moment on the dock when the girl from the West had opened her heart to Billie.