“I guess it wasn’t she,” Rosa said finally, still jerking her head from side to side attempting to find the face she was seeking for. “Yes,” she exclaimed again, “I do believe I see her. Glide over this way—”
“Isn’t it too dark along the edge?” Nancy asked. She did not like the idea of getting so far away from Dell. Besides that, it really was dark and deserted at that end of the platform.
But Rosa was bent upon following the figure she either saw or imagined she saw. In fact, so intent was she, that Nancy’s remark went by unnoticed.
“Wait here just a minute,” Rosa said suddenly, dropping Nancy’s arm and dashing off along the uncertain edge of the circular platform.
Fear seized Nancy! What if Rosa was as foolish as Garfield had hinted, and what if she should run off even for a short time on some silly pretext with the undesirable Orilla? Gar had said that Nancy had arrived “just in time.” What could he have meant?
She was watching Rosa’s light dress and felt she would surely have to follow her. No matter what Rosa had said about Nancy waiting, she was going to keep as close—
The flash of Rosa’s dress had gone out like a candle flame in the wind. Turning her own steps in the direction Rosa must have taken, she hurried along the platform’s edge and just caught a glimmer of something light—Rosa’s dress it must have been—darting through the trees, away from the pavilion.
“Rosalind!” she called anxiously. “Rosa!”
A queer little twittering whistle, that could not have been an answer from Rosalind, pierced the darkness. The music had ceased, that dance was over and now the young folks were all flocking in the other direction. Nancy saw this, too, as she stepped off the platform and attempted to follow the hidden trail of Rosalind.
“How absurd!” she could not help sighing, “if this is the way I’m going to spend my summer chasing after a foolish girl—”