“I can’t wait for that tiresome doctor any longer. I think I want to send a telegram, although I am actually not yet sure.”
Her lips twitched with a slightly whimsical grimace at herself. But Ralph Marshall had scarcely noticed her words or her expression.
“Do you think there is anything I can do to make up in any way, Mrs. Burton?” he asked. “Of course, I don’t expect Peggy to have faith in me or care for my friendship again. But I would like to be of some service to one of you, principally for my own self-respect,” he added. “But, of course, there is nothing I can do. I am not much good because Peggy actually saved me from falling the other day, when it should have been the other way round.”
Mn. Burton was thinking quickly, as she usually did.
“There is a favor you can do for me, Ralph; I have just thought of it,” she answered. “I know I can trust you to keep what you find out a secret, and Peggy will appreciate it as well. Don’t allow yourself to think that, because you were capable of doing one ugly thing, you are capable of continuing to do them. That impression has ruined many a human being.
“My extremely trying nephew, Billy Webster, has lately turned himself into a mystery. I think his mother and I have the right to know where he goes each day and what he is doing. He refuses to tell us. If you will find out and not speak of it, except to me, I don’t think it will be playing unfair with Billy, and it may save us all a good deal. But I’ll try to have a talk with the young man tonight, to persuade him to confide in me. In any case will you come over to camp early in the morning, Ralph? I won’t telegraph—at least I won’t telegraph today. I’ll leave a message at the desk for the doctor.”
But, at this instant, the hotel physician entered the room.
CHAPTER XVI
The Pine, Not the Olive
Peggy Webster had her arms filled with pine branches when she met Ralph Marshall coming toward Sunrise camp the following day.
She had gone a short distance into the woods for some light twigs for the camp fire, as the supply had gotten low.