“And now, girls,” said Nora in a brand new tone of voice, “as I have told you all of that, I feel anxious to tell you something else. I have another secret and I think it is much more serious than anything else that has happened on this wonderful vacation.”
“Out with it,” begged some one, but Nora did not hear the thoughtless phrase.
Miss Beckwith sat with the girls, encouraging their confidences, and the usual safety in numbers was surely a clue to the satisfaction of the novel meeting. Secrets were best shared by the multitude, then what one was not wise enough to know, some one would surely be clever enough to guess—so far as solution of the problem went.
“One day when I was wandering around—it was the day we had such a wonderful time——” Nora started.
“When you learned to swim?” prompted Wynnie.
“I think it was. Well, I just walked along a lane I had never found before,” continued the prince—for she was still that noble character, “and under a cave of pines—they grew so thick I could hardly see there, it was almost as dark as night; and right there, in a bed of leaves I saw something move.”
Just who was it that choked back Wyn’s interruption does not matter, but presently Nora continued:
“At first, of course, I thought it was a dog or something like that, but all of a sudden it sat up!”
“Oh!” exclaimed the sympathetic Alma.
“Yes, it sat up and looked at me with eyes like coals of fire.”