“No, they won’t, Ruth. I have already talked to Aunt Sallie. She told Bab she wanted her to stay in the house this morning. Aunt Sallie thinks Barbara is tired from her ride yesterday.”
“Oh, very well, Mollie, I won’t urge Bab to come with us, then; though I can’t understand why you don’t want her along. I shall be glad when you explain the mystery to me,” Ruth concluded.
“That is why I wish to drive over with you. Sh! Aunt Sallie is coming. Don’t say anything before her.”
“Ruth,” explained Mollie, as the three girls were hurrying toward Pittsfield in their motor car, “I want to tell you why I did not wish Bab to come along with us to the hospital for Eunice. I don’t know what you and Grace may think of me; but I intend to try an experiment.”
“An experiment, Mollie!” Grace exclaimed. “What experiment do you intend to try?”
“Well girls,” Mollie continued, “do you recall that Bab went driving, a few days ago, with Reginald Latham, Mr. Winthrop Latham and Aunt Sallie?”
Ruth and Grace both nodded.
“And you remember Bab said she was going to discover, on that drive, what connection Eunice had with the Latham family?”
“Yes,” Grace assented. “Do hurry on to the point of your story.”
“No; you must hear it all over again,” Mollie protested. “I want you and Ruth to remember just exactly the story Bab told us. Reginald Latham did not wish the subject of Eunice mentioned before his uncle, because Mr. Winthrop Latham’s oldest brother had married an Indian girl. It seems the brother met the Indian girl while he was studying the history of the Indians in this neighborhood; so he just married her without mentioning the fact to his family. Of course the Lathams, who were very rich and very distinguished, were heart-broken over the marriage. And I guessed they were not any too good to the poor little Indian woman, when Mr. William Latham brought her back to his home to live. As soon as her husband died, she ran away to her own people. When Mr. Winthrop Latham tried to find her some time afterwards, to give her her husband’s property, it seems that the Indian wife was dead. At any rate Reginald declares this to be the case. From that day to this, the Latham family never speak of anything that even relates to Indians.” Mollie ended her speech in a slightly scornful tone.