“You can’t imagine our luck! I will never get over it.”
But Dorothy knew no more than before what Tavia referred to, although she did suggest that Tavia might go up to the stable, and thank Jake for his part in her escape.
It was one rainy morning, when the girls would not reasonably think of venturing out of doors, that Jean fixed herself for the storm and started for the post-office. This meant that she had mail which she did not wish to go in with that of the school.
She rushed along and in the gully, as she took the shortest cut across the woods, she saw approaching her a woman—the fortune teller!
In spite of Jean’s hurry the woman overtook her, and, slouching up to the narrow path, demanded Jean to stop.
“I can’t,” Jean replied, “I have only a few minutes in which to get to the post-office.”
“But my business is more important than mailing a letter,” said the woman. “I know you—I know all about you, and if you do not pay me well with the money which you spend so easily on candy, I will expose you at your school!”
For a moment Jean was startled, then, recovering her presence of mind, she said:
“There is nothing that anyone can know of me that would injure my reputation. Let me pass!”
“No, my fine young lady; I will not let you pass until you give me a dollar out of that shiny purse,” sneered the woman. “Do you suppose I do not know enough to have you expelled from Glenwood?”