“Then look out. She has a motive if she is sensible. But, mother, I have got to run along, or we will be put on probation if we over stay, and there is no telling what may delay us. We had to stop to get air in the car coming out.”
Gloria was now so far back in the closet that she could hardly breathe, but the door had sprung open a crack so she heard distinctly what the mother and daughter were saying.
“Where’s my tweed coat? I’ve got to take that. It’s quite cold evenings—”
She was coming to the closet! Gloria dared not stir! What if she should ever discover her with all that make-up on her face and hiding in the clothes press!
“Where is my tweed coat?” again demanded the flurried Hazel.
“I’ll look,” volunteered the equally flurried mother, and she came to the closet—pushed the things back—there were only a few hooks between Gloria and discovery. Then some of the things fell down.
“Oh!” shrieked Hazel. “I thought I heard a mouse or something!”
“Maybe Tobias—”
“Turn on the light, mother. I will surely never get out again this week if I am late getting back. You see Jen had her car come down, her father’s driving or we couldn’t have come. Where on earth is that coat?”
Right in Gloria’s eye a heavy fold of cloth indicated a tweed coat. She crouched down still further. The closet was very long, running between two rooms, and at its end was a box covering a heating pipe. The furnace had not been lighted for the season, but Gloria welcomed the pipe-box as something to crouch down upon. It was better than the floor.