Betty sighed, and walked faster. By-and-by, however, she stood still. She had come suddenly to the stump of an old tree. It was a broken and very aged stump, and hollow inside. Betty stood close to it. The next moment, prompted by an uncontrollable instinct, she thrust in her hand and pulled out a little sealed packet. She looked at it wildly for a minute, then put it back again. It was quite safe in this hiding-place, for she had placed it in a corner of the old stump where it was sheltered from the weather, and yet could never by any possibility be seen unless the stump was cut down. She had scarcely completed this action before a voice from behind caused her to jump and start.
“Whatever are you doing by that old stump of a tree, Betty?”
Betty turned swiftly. The color rushed to her face, leaving it the next instant paler than ever. She was confronted by the uninteresting and very small personality of Sibyl Ray.
“I am doing nothing,” said Betty. “What affair is it of yours?”
“Oh, I am not interested,” said Sibyl. “I was just taking a walk all alone, and I saw you in the distance; and I rushed up that steep path yonder as fast as I could, hoping you would let me join you and talk to you. You know I am going to be present at your Speciality party to-night. I do admire you so very much, Betty! Then, just as I was coming near, you thrust your hand down into that old stump, and you certainly did take something out. Was it a piece of wood, or what? I saw you looking at it, and then you dropped it in again. It looked like a square piece of wood, as far as I could tell from the distance. What were you doing with it? It was wood, was it not?”
“If you like to think it was wood, it was wood,” replied Betty. Here was another lie! Betty’s heart sank very low. “I wish you would go away, Sibyl,” she said, “and not worry me.”
“Oh, but mayn’t I walk with you? What harm can I do? And I do admire you so immensely! And won’t you take the thing out of the tree again and let me see it? I want to see it ever so badly.”
“No, I am sure I won’t. You can poke for it yourself whenever you please,” said Betty. “Now, come on, if you are coming.”
“Oh, may I come with you really?”
“I can’t prevent you, Sibyl. As a matter of fact, I was going out for a walk all alone; but as you are determined to bear me company, you must.”