Sadie and Jo were standing just within the doorway, uncomfortably watching the intimate scene.
"Let's run away!" Jo whispered to Sadie. "They don't know we're here!"
But in this Nan's Aunt Emma immediately proved her wrong.
"I want to know who it was came into my room and carried me to the window," she said in a voice that, for her, was unusually determined. "I thought it was Nan, but now I realize it wasn't her voice I heard at all."
"Jo did it, Aunt Emma," Nan said before Jo, backing hastily to the door, could escape. "She was wonderful! She told us where to put the ladder and then swarmed up it like a little monkey."
"Oh, hush, Nan, please!" cried Jo, who hated above all things to be praised.
"I won't hush!" cried Nan. "Aunt Emma asked a question, and certainly she has a right to know who saved her life!"
"I didn't!" protested Jo. "When you and Sadie reached me I was about all in."
"And why?" retorted Nan. "Because you risked your life—that's why!"
Mrs. Jameson smiled as Miss Harrison, eyes bright, beckoned Jo to come closer.