“Virginia,” said Billie, “we’ve come to take you back with us to luncheon and to stay all night, too, if you will. I hope you can come.”
“If Mamma can spare me, I should love to,” she answered eagerly. “Will you come in while I find out?”
They preferred, however, to wait outside and the young girl flew into the house and upstairs as lightly as a thistledown on the breeze. Presently she was back again.
“I can go,” she cried joyfully. “Mamma is feeling much better to-day and she would like so much to meet you four girls. You don’t mind waiting, do you, Mr. Paxton? I would ask you up, too, but I’m afraid your likeness to my brother might excite her.”
As they followed her into the enormous empty house, she added in a lower voice:
“Remember, Mamma knows nothing about our working, or—or anything. Be careful what you say.”
CHAPTER XVI.—MRS. L’ESTRANGE.
The second floor of the l’Estrange house was very different from the first. The hall at the upper end was like a fine drawing-room. There were rugs on the floor and opposite the door of the front bedroom were several easy chairs and a sewing table. The door of this room stood ajar and Virginia led the way inside.
“Mamma,” she said softly, “I want you to meet my four friends who are stopping at the hotel at Palm Beach.”
The girls never forgot the picture of Mrs. l’Estrange in her bedroom. It was all so unreal after the empty old house. It was really a sumptuous chamber, large, and full of polished objects. The light came in dimly through the heavy blue brocaded curtains at the windows and was reflected in the mahogany secretaries and tables and the graceful rosewood lounge at one end.