“No one is safe with such a secret,” objected Tavia, “though Dick is nearest to it, she loves news, and just fancy that story getting out. Talk about a Gleaner story! This would get in the big city papers. But, though I am a good guesser, I cannot guess how the dog got back. Of course Dorothy had to do with it. I shouldn’t wonder if she went down to the post-office, laid in wait for our benefactress, and told her Jake was dying, and wanted to see the animal just once more. Something like that, you will find.”
“Well, we have got to get to business,” said Edna with a sigh. “Jean beat me in algebra yesterday, and I can’t let it happen again. By the way, I wonder where she gets all her money?”
“A rich uncle. I heard her tell of him. I don’t believe her own folks are any better off than mine, and land knows where we would have been, if my foreign grandmother did not die, and make it a point to find out where we were before doing so. I cannot never thank her enough,” and Tavia looked heavenward.
“Jean is certainly well off with small change,” went on Edna. “I am afraid if some one does not check her, she will turn chocolate color. She just wallows in them.”
“And doesn’t she hate Dorothy? I can’t see why, unless it is she sees herself in the mirror of Dorothy’s goodness. There! Wasn’t that lovely? And from me! I hate to see Jean toting that baby Zada around. She is so innocent she would do anything Jean might suggest—when Jean would be too cute to do it herself. She keeps fixing her up with sweets all the time, and Zada thinks she loves her.”
“And Cecilia Reynolds is another who would not cry if anything unpleasant should happen to Dorothy. Well, we have got to keep our team close, and stick together,” declared Edna, “and I do hope this dog business will not spoil us again.”
“‘Let sleeping dogs lie,’” quoted Tavia. “And, speaking of dogs, there come the Jean set now. They have been to the woods, ostensibly, but really have been down to the lunch cart. Jean never could get along till noon on a Glen breakfast.”
“Did you see her white tennis suit?” asked Edna. “Isn’t it a startler? She’s going to wear it at the match. That’s like her. I suppose she will not even have a ‘G’ on her arm. Well, white or black, we can beat them. Did you see how Dick played yesterday?”
“Oh, we’re not afraid of them at tennis,” replied Tavia. “They might do us at the lunch cart, but tennis? Never!”
A few hours later even the returned dog was forgotten in the depths of school work. Dorothy kept her eyes on her books more intently than was necessary, for in doing so she avoided the glances that Tavia was covertly turning on her. She was determined that the two culprits should make their own discoveries, and she was quite correct in her ideas of what Jake would say if they (the girls) happened around the stable again while he was on duty.