The good news was telegraphed back to Coventry school with a demand for some of Elfie’s clothes. When the bag containing them came Elfie, very white and weak, was propped up in bed with pillows, with her loving eyes fixed on Candace, and listening, as if she were not hearing it for the hundredth time, to her repetition of “Water, water, quench fire; fire, fire, burn stick; stick, stick, beat dog,” etc.
She turned as the little dresses were taken from the bag, exclaiming:
“Elfie’s own girlie dresses! O, mammy, mammy, they dressed Elfie like a boy!”
They did not know till then that she had recovered the recollection of her experience with the Belottis, but after that she talked freely about it, and was told how Marion had been near her all the time, but had not dared to let herself be seen.
“Poor Marion!” she said, throwing her arms lovingly around her neck, seeming to know by instinct how hard it must have been for Marion to refrain from letting her know she was near.
It was several days before Dr. Mitchell felt as if it was quite prudent for them to take Elfie home, and when they went Mrs. Jones went too, having been persuaded by Mrs. Abbott to give herself a week’s vacation.
When the train stopped at Coventry only Miss Blake and Robert, the man, were on the platform to meet them, and they were as calm as if Mrs. Abbott was only returning from an ordinary business trip, such as she often took, for in her letters she had begged that there should be nothing done that might cause Elfie any excitement; but on the side piazza of the station, keeping well out of sight, was nearly every girl who attended the school.
Miss Blake, after seeing the others into the carryall, brought Marion around to the expectant crowd, who surrounded her with cries of enthusiastic delight. The story had been very sketchily told in a letter from Mrs. Abbott, and all the way home the girls were clamorous for more particulars, which Marion was very modest about giving. But her reserve did not matter so much for the moment, for the others were beginning to tell her of their own fright and distress about Elfie.
“Tell me,” said Marion, so softly that no one heard her but Lily and Katie, who were walking with their arms around her, “did any one think I had run away with Mrs. Abbott’s money?”
“No, indeed!” exclaimed the girls in the same breath, “except Edna.”