“Of course, I know you think it stupid and absurd of me, but you can’t guess what it means to me to be sitting so close beside you. I feel as if I must be dreaming. I have so wanted to know a great actress.”
Polly Burton gave the girl’s hand a little friendly pressure in return.
“Then you must wake up,” she said firmly. “You see the girls in my Camp Fire group don’t think of me as an actress, but only as a more or less successful Camp Fire guardian. I don’t like stage-struck girls, even if I was one myself once upon a time, as my sister reminded me. Besides, why should you care, child, anything about me or my work. I really don’t see why it should matter to you whether I am an actress or a—well let us say a sewing woman. I should probably have been as unsuccessful at that as any one could be.”
Mrs. Burton laughed and Marta made no reply. Instead she was wise enough to change the subject immediately.
“In any case you have been wonderfully kind. I am sure I don’t know why, but sometimes it seems as if the wrong things in this life are rewarded, such as my coming here uninvited to see you. I wonder if it was selfish tonight to leave Miss Deal to look after my brother.”
As some one had at that moment distracted Mrs. Burton’s attention by speaking to her from the other end of the table, Marta turned to Dan.
“You have been kindest of all,” she remarked with the sudden gentleness she used as unexpectedly as her sudden flares of temper.
Both amused Dan. He had seen the new girl more frequently than any of the other members of their Camp Fire as, for the past few days he had driven one or two of them over each day to call upon Marta and her brother, or more especially upon Ellen Deal. The visits were naturally not always to the two comparative strangers, but to find out if Ellen were happy and comfortable in her self-appointed task of caring for two invalids unknown to her until a short time before.
After dinner, feeling responsible for their guest, Dan sat beside her while the others danced. But, by and by, Sally Ashton, who did not enjoy having Dan completely absorbed by any one else, came and asked him to dance with her. And Marta insisted that he should.
She was not alone, however, for in a short time Peggy joined her. For some reason Peggy had decided not to dance a single time during the evening. She was not sure of her own reasons, but gave the excuse that she was tired.