“Oh, how dreadful!” she whispered. “Who can she be?”
“I thought she might be a daughter of the Sullys.”
“There is a marked facial resemblance,” Kitty agreed. “Do you suppose the Misses Gates know she is here?”
“Why, they must. They come up here nearly every day ostensibly to read their Bibles. They probably come to see this crippled child.”
“Poor thing,” Kitty murmured, “I feel so sorry for her. Dare we go in?”
“I don’t see why we shouldn’t. She’s likely dying of lonesomeness.”
Doris took hold of the door-knob but she did not turn it, for just at that moment the girls heard the sound of footsteps on the floor below. The door at the bottom of the stairs closed. The girls exchanged frightened glances. Some one was coming and they were trapped! How could they explain their presence in the suite?
Doris cast a frantic glance over the sitting room and noticed a closet.
“Quick, we must hide!” she whispered to Kitty. They tiptoed across the room and entered the closet, softly closing the door behind them. They were not an instant too soon, for whoever was coming had reached the top of the stairway.
Daringly Doris peeped out through a crack to see who it was. To her surprise she beheld Azalea Gates. Bible in hand, the old lady entered the living room, crossed directly to the bedroom and without a glance in the direction of the closet went in and closed the door behind her.