Judy looked around for the girl they had met in the restaurant, but she was nowhere in sight. The seat next to Flo was vacant. Judy tried to think when she had last seen Clarissa or heard her speak. A shivery feeling came over her.
“Didn’t you see her leave?” Pauline was asking Florence Garner.
Flo shook her head. “I wasn’t looking at anything except the play,” she replied. “Wasn’t it beautiful when that fairy mist covered the castle and made it vanish?”
Judy waved her hand in front of Flo’s eyes. “The play’s over. Come back from fairyland,” she told her. “Clarissa has vanished. You were sitting right beside her. You must have seen her when she left her seat.”
“She didn’t leave it. Anyway, not that I noticed,” Flo protested. “Maybe she was a phantom after all. Maybe she disappeared into the mist.”
“If she did, she disappeared with the money we lent her,” Pauline declared.
“Good heavens!” This statement brought Flo out of her trancelike state. She stared at the empty seat and then at Pauline. “Well, what do you know?” she said at last. “I think all four of us, including Irene, have been played for suckers. We should have known better than to trust a stranger. We don’t even know where she lives.”
“I thought she was a phony. What do you think, Judy?” asked Pauline.
“I still can’t believe it,” Judy declared. “Clarissa was our friend.”
“Our phantom friend,” Pauline reminded her.