At school the question still pursued Marjorie. Would Mark come home and want his room and, if he did, would he know who was there? After school she dashed home and burst through the back door and up the back stairs. Mark’s door was closed. There was a paper pinned upon it. It was Mother’s writing and it said, “Please don’t disturb.”
So Marjorie passed by the door. She went into Mother’s room and found Mother sewing. “Isn’t company ever going to wake up?” she asked. “Am I never to know who is there?”
But she received no answer only a smile.
Dotty was home now. Dotty didn’t know who was in Mark’s room, but she wasn’t curious about things. She was occupied in cutting out paper dolls, sitting on the floor in the sun beside the window.
“What happened at luncheon?” asked Marjorie of Dotty who went to kindergarten and came home at noon. “Did anybody talk in Mark’s room when Mother took up the tray? Did you hear anything?”
Dotty shook her head.
Deary me! Oh, dear! And the door was closed! Marjorie decided to walk by it again. She waited and she listened. She heard nothing at all—no, not a sound, not a sound! Then the telephone bell rang and she ran down to answer it. The telephone call was from Mabel. Mabel had been at school and she wanted to know if Marjorie had solved the mystery.
“Who came? Who is it?” she asked.
But Marjorie did not know. Mabel suggested that it must be Marjorie’s aunt who came from the West. “Probably that’s it,” she said. “Why don’t you make a May basket and go tie it on the door and—and say something. You could tell from the voice, if it answered you, whether it was your aunt or not.” That was a good thought. Marjorie set about making a paper May basket. She heard Mother go up the front stairs and cross to the back where Mark’s door was. Then, having made the basket, she decided to try Mabel’s suggestion. Mother went into Mark’s room, came out and went downstairs again. Marjorie waited.
Then she went upstairs softly. Mother was in the living-room with Dotty now, playing and helping her cut the dolls out of a big magazine sheet. They seemed occupied.