Dr. McClain was to accompany Kara to New York in order to see the New York physicians. Mr. Jeremy Hammond had offered to motor them down, as he owned a handsome car and Kara would be spared having to be lifted in and out of the train.
Kara’s farewell Scout meeting was by her own request a quiet one. No one would be present save the Scout Captain and her own Patrol. There was only one other person who would come for half an hour to say good-by, Memory Frean.
Fortunately the Fenton house had a bedroom on the first floor, so that Kara could be comfortable without the problem of the stairs.
One admirer Kara had acquired without realizing the fact. She was to make the discovery on the afternoon that she and Miss Victoria Fenton sat talking, waiting for Tory to announce that preparations were ready for tea.
From the beginning of Tory’s first acquaintance with Katharine Moore, Miss Fenton had been quietly watching the other girl. She had liked Kara’s fashion of never referring to the difference between her own life and that of her more fortunate friends. When it was natural to mention the orphan asylum, where she made her home, always she spoke of the place with affection, never criticism or resentment.
Knowing nothing of her parentage, Miss Victoria concluded for reasons of her own that Kara had come of well-bred people. And she meant more than ordinary breeding. She was under the impression that Kara revealed rare tact and sweetness in a difficult situation. Now and then she considered that her attitude bore a quality of high courage. But not until after Kara’s accident was Miss Fenton convinced that courage was the characteristic that lay behind her other attributes.
In the twenty-four hours the young girl had been her guest with the prospect of such a test of patience and fortitude before her, Miss Victoria had surrendered completely.
Silently Tory Drew had been aware of Miss Victoria’s state of mind. She had observed a new tenderness in the older woman’s manner and voice whenever she spoke or looked at her guest that she never had seen her display.
This afternoon on the day before Kara’s departure, when Miss Victoria entered Kara’s bedroom, with a hurried excuse Tory withdrew.
Kara, who was lying on a couch in a dark corner of the square old room, struggled to sit up as the older woman entered.