"Yes, but you are not to worry. You understand, you are not to worry one instant. Everything will come out all right."
"It was nearly ten thousand dollars," said Molly, almost sobbing; "our house and garden and the rest of the apple orchard that was sending me to college—" Here she broke down completely. "I may have to give up all this—I may——"
"Now, Miss Molly, you mustn't cry. You make me feel like the very—very unhappy, way off here."
"Five minutes up," called the voice of the exchange.
"Good-by, good-by," called Molly. "I'm sorry I cried, Mr. Blount."
Poor man! It was all terribly hard on him, and it was cruel of her to have given way, but it had come so unawares!
From a corner of her eye, she could see her friends waiting anxiously outside the booth. She pretended to be writing something on the telephone pad with a stubby pencil tied to a string, until she recovered her composure.
"What's the matter?" demanded the two girls as she emerged from the booth.
"It was just a long distance from Richard Blount," said Molly, not knowing what else to say.
"I didn't know you had asked him to go to the Glee Club concert," said Nance.