“Why not? After all, it’s no crime to visit a little girl. I feel dreadfully sorry for her, and then I’d like to ask her a few questions, too.”
“All right,” Kitty agreed.
Returning to the mansion, they quietly entered by the side door and stole softly up the stairway. They could hear Henry and Cora cleaning the rooms occupied by the Misses Gates. The doors were closed so they knew they had not been seen. Turning into their own wing they moved noiselessly down the hall until they came to the stairway leading to the third floor. Glancing back to make certain they were not being observed, they crept up the stairs and paused before the Sully suite.
Hesitating an instant, they pushed open the door and stepped into the sitting room. As they moved over toward the bedroom, they heard some one crying and knew that it was Etta.
Doris and Kitty quietly opened the door and entered. At first the girl on the bed did not hear them, but as they took a step toward her, she turned her head.
The girls were shocked at her appearance. She was not an ugly child, but her face was pinched and drawn. The hands which rested above the soiled comforter were thin and scrawny. Her hair did not look as though it had been combed that day.
The girls did not know just what to do or say, so stunned were they upon seeing this strange little creature gazing so pitifully and wonderingly at them. She was not frightened, but she was very much amazed. Why, these girls were among the few persons she had seen in all her years of seclusion.
Her great eyes looked out upon them—pleading, tragic, wounded eyes, like those of a timid, shy young animal. The girls held their breath!
“I never expected this,” awesomely whispered Kitty.
“How dreadful!” responded Doris.