They finally reached a spot where they could speak privately, without being overheard.
“What is it?” begged Miss Davis.
“He, Nicky, didn’t take it,” Babs answered quickly.
“Then who did?”
“I don’t know. He says in a note he wrote me that he couldn’t tell just then. Of course he will when I see him.”
Miss Davis’s face dropped like a faded flower falling from its stem.
“My dear child,” she murmured, “this is awful. I felt sure you had recovered it, you were so cheerful.”
“But I am sure now that you will get it,” insisted Barbara. “I know I can depend upon Nicky, and if it hadn’t been for Father wanting to fetch in the sampler this afternoon I might have found him. But you see,” she pointed out affectionately, “I really couldn’t disappoint Dad. He so seldom takes an interest in things like this.”
“Yes, you couldn’t disappoint a man like your father, Barbara. He’s one of Nature’s noblemen,” Miss Davis declared fervently. “And I’m simply delighted to find that we can claim a relationship.” Her faded eyes sought Barbara’s and they tried to smile, but her lips, her mouth merely twitched. She was suffering in her anxiety.
Instinctively Barbara put out her hand and pressed the slender fingers, that seemed so nervously restless upon the silken cord gathering in the little lady’s bag.