Presently she felt a lump between the torn lining and the leather covering, and before Mrs. Nancy Trivett could offer any more protests Gloria held out to her the two crumpled bills.
“There you are,” said Gloria simply, turning away without so much as noticing the other’s gasping astonishment. She left her to return the trash to her bag and also to “fight it out with Sam.”
Those faithful few who had “stuck around to see the finish” gloated over Gloria’s triumph, but she did not so much as deign to answer Fred Ayres’ question, who was really polite enough in putting it.
He just wanted to know where was Tommy Whitely.
The incident settled, Gloria had much more important matters to concern herself with. She might have a second letter from Aunt Harriet. The post office would close in five minutes and there was no time to lose in crossing the dusty street.
And there she found the second letter in her box. With it were cards and a letter from her dad. She had just time to put the Aunt Harriet letter in her blouse when Jane appeared with others to mail for Mrs. Mayhew.
The flame of indignation lighted in Gloria’s cheeks by Nancy Trivett, was now smoldering to a shadow of anxiety. It was never easy to understand the doings of Aunt Harriet. Gloria was so abstracted on the way home that gentle Jane decided she was sorry to leave Barbend. But the anxiety threatening came from a deeper source than mere girlish sentiment.
CHAPTER V
THE FORECAST
The trip out to Sandford in the open trolley was bound to be either very pleasant or horrid. Today it was horrid, for a light drizzle floated in, not heavy enough to demand that curtains be lowered and not light enough to be just damp. Gloria was going out to her Aunt Harriet’s in response to the mysterious summons given in last night’s letter.