“No, that is, nothing much,” truthfully answered Nancy. “Mother has told me about Orilla’s disappointment in having to leave Uncle Frederic’s home,” she added, thoughtfully.
“Well,” sighed the trusted woman, getting up and preparing to leave, “I don’t mean to ask you to spy on your cousin, but I should be glad if you will do what you can to keep her away from that girl.”
“I certainly intend to do that,” declared Nancy, hardly recognizing her own voice.
“That’s right, dear, and you won’t be sorry. This is sure to be a trying summer, with Mr. and Mrs. Fred in Europe, and I’m so glad that you are here. Rosa needs companionship. No girl can grow up alone and be healthy, mentally. To be sure, she has had her school friends, but you see, my dear,” again the deep sounding sigh, “it has been rather hard for her to make friends. She’s so sensitive about her size. Why, one girl at school last year just followed Rosa around, she was so fond of her. But the child just thought she was seeking favors.”
Margot, with this confidence and her apparent love for Rosa, had suddenly taken a new hold on Nancy’s affections. After all, it is a woman a girl needs, Nancy was determining, and to her at that very moment—Margot was the woman.
CHAPTER XV
MYSTERIOUS HAPPENINGS
“I’ll be sound asleep,” Nancy decided, when she was finally settled in bed after spending a fitful hour trying to read. “It’s the only way. I never could talk to Rosa to-night. To-morrow things will seem different.”
Assuming her most restful attitude—lying flat on her back with her face “boldly turned up to Heaven,” as Ted called Nancy’s way of wooing sleep, she tried to think calmly.
“But what did Orilla want to steal in for?” persisted that question. “And even if she didn’t want Margot to know that she came, why should she want to deceive Rosa?