“What’s the matter?” she cried. “Hugo, have you met the girls before?”
“Why, why yes,” stammered the man, a smile touching his lips.
“You see we were lost in the woods and he very kindly showed us the way out,” said Billie, finding her voice at last.
“Oh,” said Miss Arbuckle.
Then she introduced her companion to the girls as “my brother” and once more the girls thought they must be losing their minds. But this time Miss Arbuckle did not seem to notice their bewilderment, for her whole mind was on the object that had brought her here.
“The children?” she asked, her voice trembling with emotion. “Are they here?”
“They are at my house, Miss Arbuckle,” said Connie, recovering from her bewilderment enough to realize that she was the hostess. “I suppose you’re crazy to see them.”
“Oh yes! Oh yes!” cried the teacher. Then, as Connie led the way on toward the cottage, she turned to Billie eagerly.
“Billie,” she said, “are you sure you recognized my children? If I should be disappointed now I—I think it would kill me. Tell me, what do they look like?”
As Billie described the waifs Miss Arbuckle’s face grew brighter and brighter and the man whom the girls had called Hugo Billings leaned forward eagerly.