Certainly she had altered. And something must have occurred which was responsible for Sally’s present state of mind and health.
As she was as much in the dark as ever, Mrs. Burton hoped that Aunt Patricia knew; but if Miss Patricia had expected that Sally would also make a confidante of her in the few moments they had spent together the other evening, she had been mistaken. Sally had appeared interested only in the approaching dinner party. In answer to a direct question she had merely protested that she had nothing to confide and did not understand why she was supposed to have changed.
Two hours longer the Camp Fire girls and their guardian continued to discuss the details of their new Camp Fire work in France.
Marguerite Arnot and Yvonne Fleury both offered to introduce the American girls to their acquaintances in Paris.
And this afforded the very opportunity Mrs. Burton had hoped for; Yvonne’s friends would probably be fairly well off, while Marguerite’s would offer a sharp contrast.
The young French dressmaker had been working in a dressmaking establishment when Miss Patricia had first learned to know her, and before becoming a member of the household at Versailles had been living in a garret in an old house in Paris. Tonight she explained that her friends were poor girls who were making their living just as she was.
It was actually toward midnight, with the Camp Fire rules of early bedtime forgotten, when a sharp knock came at the drawing-room door.
The girls and Mrs. Burton started guiltily; there was no need to ask who had knocked, the sound had been too peremptory.
The next instant Miss Patricia stalked in.
She was frowning and yet she carried a large tray of hot chocolate.