It was long before seven o’clock, therefore, when they drew up at the Ogden railroad station. Only a few people were about at that early hour, but framed in the doorway of the waiting room stood a slender, girlish figure, dressed in gray, a gray veil wrapped closely around her hat and face.
Billie drew a deep breath.
“Cousin Helen, you’ve got the chance to help Evelyn Stone,” she said, getting over the confusion as quickly as possible. “I asked her the other night to run away with us in the Comet, and she has accepted. Here she is.”
There was not time for the astonished lady to reply; for the girl in gray, seeing the red car, rushed out, carrying her suitcase with her.
In another instant, she and her luggage were installed on the front seat with Nancy and a new Motor Maid was added to the Comet.
“Dear Miss Campbell,” she said leaning back and taking the older woman’s hand, “I can’t tell you how happy I am. You are the kindest, the nicest, the best—” she continued incoherently, her voice choking with emotion. “If I had had anyone else to go to—but I have no one except my father’s sister, and she is not in sympathy with me. I thought of going somewhere by train, but where? The other time when I ran away I had decided to teach school, but it was very difficult to get a position, and when I found you knew Daniel and Billie asked me, I couldn’t resist it. You will forgive me, won’t you?”
Miss Campbell was not proof against the charms of the beautiful girl, and melted at once into her old delightful and agreeable self.
“My dear,” she said, pressing the girl’s hand, “it is a pleasure to add you to our party. I confess I’m afraid of your father, but I trust he has no idea you have run away with us.”
“No, no, he hasn’t. You see I left last night before he came up to his room. He thought I was asleep. I am certain he thinks I’ve gone East, because I bought a ticket to Chicago and took the midnight train. He has no way to know that I left the train at Ogden and he has no legal grounds for stopping me anyway, unless he trumps up something as he did before when I went off with the horse.”
“He’d be quite capable of trumping up anything he could think of,” thought Miss Campbell, but she said nothing and they did not allude to the subject again that day.