Jessie Norwood was no prude; but she did want to do the right thing. She had been trained to think for herself; perhaps she got a certain logical slant of mind from her father. And, in addition, she felt a real interest in Montmorency Shannon.
The red-haired boy was so bright and ingenious that it seemed a more than dreadful thing for him to be suspected of stealing. If he had found the watch at the scene of the aeroplane disaster and had hidden and sold it, stealing was the only term that applied.
“I must try to get him to confide in me,” thought Jessie. “He must tell me how he expects to pay for that receiving set he says he has bought.”
Mr. Blair nodded to Miss Allister then and told her to try the chorus again.
“I am going down to the reception room to listen in with the people there. I want to see how it sounds at a distance.”
Amy of course began to giggle when she whispered to Mark and Jessie: “He wants to see how it sounds! Isn’t that funny?”
Belle Ringold had fixed her eyes on Mark when first he slipped into the room; she could scarcely give her attention to the renewed rehearsal. Miss Allister was greatly flustered by the inattention of the girls. She had really lost control of them.
“Let’s get out of this squalling,” said Mark, in an undertone. “Guess that chorus is going to be a frost. That is what brought me up here. I was listening in with father and the ladies downstairs, and father sent me up to tell Blair that he doubted if the chorus would add anything to the reputation of the company, even if it was for charity.”
“Oh, dear, me,” murmured Jessie when they got out into the anteroom. “If the chorus is not a success Miss Allister will be awfully disappointed.”
“Not to say anything of how mad Belle and Sally will be,” said Amy. “Oh, Jess! We are lucky that we didn’t get into the chorus after all.”