“But I’m going to! Oh, but I must hurry and get the cream ready or it will be too late!” She started to run, but after a few steps turned back, and waving her hand at the girls, called, “Helen, you tell her while I am getting the tray.”
“But I’m coming to help you,” replied that young woman. “You come, too,” she added, catching Grace by the arm. But to her surprise Grace pulled away from her with the exclamation, “Oh, Helen! I wouldn’t go in that house for a mint of money! Why didn’t you know? No, I’m not to tell,” she ended mysteriously, “but you go,” she added, “that is if you are not afraid.”
“Afraid?” echoed her companion in amazement, “why should I be afraid, surely you don’t think any one could harm us as long as Nathalie has been there and come away safely?”
“I don’t know,” hesitated Grace, “I!—”
“Oh, girls, I have the tray all ready, but you will have to help me carry it. Do come on, for I do not want to keep Mrs. Van Vorst waiting too long!” Nathalie was back again.
“Grace says she is afraid to go,” explained Helen.
“Afraid!” repeated Nathalie bewildered. “What are you afraid of?” she demanded abruptly turning towards her friend.
“Why Nathalie, don’t you remember that day we—”
Nathalie continued to gaze at her blankly, and then her face broke into a smile as she remembered the day she and Grace had run away from the gray house afraid of the crazy man.
“Oh, Grace,” she cried with merry laughter, “that was the best joke on you and me, for, O dear, why, Grace, it wasn’t any crazy man at all, it was only a cockatoo!”