Betty was not forced to explain. He understood it all in a twinkling.
“How much did the old skinflint get out of you?” he asked anxiously, as they walked up towards the avenue.
“O, Tommy! I don’t know, I’m sure!” cried Betty. “That’s no matter now. Think of Rose! This will simply kill her.”
“Ho! it won’t do anything of the sort!” he rejoined. “Believe me, she won’t take it anything like so hard as you do. I wouldn’t breathe this to anyone but you, Betty, but it’s my private opinion that Rose enjoys being blind. It gives her a sort of a cinch, you know, and then in a way it’s sort of fun. Do you remember once when I was a kid I limped around almost a whole term with a bad ankle? It really wasn’t lame a bit after one night, but I never enjoyed myself more in all my life. I’d be doing it now—limping—like as not, only one morning—it was after it had got to be so natural that I should ’a thought I’d ’a limped if I walked in my sleep—I forgot all about it and came downstairs in two jumps and landed plumb on that foot. And there was dad right on the spot and laughing fit to kill. By the way, did Vandegrift, alias Warrener, alias What-you-call-ums really look as slick as all that?”
“Yes—no—I don’t know, I’m sure!” cried the girl. “But he was so kind and seemed so learned, so scientific. O, Tommy, don’t you believe that even now there may be some mistake? He said the medical profession were jealous and persecuted him.”
“No, Betty, he’s a fakir all right. That’s plain to see,” quoth Tommy firmly. “When it comes to actually arresting him, you know, and all that horse jockey business, it means business.”
The girl wrung her hands. Tommy winced secretly.
“Betty, I’ll go home with you and then I’ll come back and tell Rose about it,” he proposed. “I’ll promise to break it to her very, very gently, and then you can see her later on if you want or wait till to-morrow.”
“O, Tommy! if you would!” she cried. “It seems as if I couldn’t now—and yet—I want her to know it. Let’s hurry. I’ve got to get home and do the dinner dishes. I hid them—under the sink!”
On a sudden, she began to laugh wildly. Then she stopped and leaned against a tree and in a few seconds the startled Tommy realized that she was sobbing violently.