But Helen’s whispered comments about her friend were not all heard by Nathalie, who suddenly stiffened, and with a quick exclamation leaned forward and stared curiously at a gray figure that was walking past the house with strained, averted eyes, as if fearful that she might see the group of merry girls on the veranda.
“Who is that lady all in gray?” she demanded, abruptly clutching Helen’s arm as her eyes followed the gliding figure of the strange-appearing woman whose library card she had found the day of her accident in the woods.
Helen looked up quickly in response to Nathalie’s question, but before she could answer, Kitty Corwin cried hastily, “Girls, look! there goes ‘The Mystic’!”
CHAPTER IV—NATHALIE IS ASKED TO BECOME A BLUE ROBIN
“The Mystic!” echoed Nathalie in mild amazement, while one or two of the group turned and gazed curiously at the gray-shrouded figure hurrying by.
“You needn’t ask me to look at her,” asserted the Sport with a scowl, “after screwing up my courage as I did to ask her if we could use her terraced lawn for one of our drills; why, the glance she gave me almost froze me stiff!”
The girls laughed at Edith’s tragic tone, while Lillie Bell retorted teasingly, “Well, she must be a chill-raiser, Edith, if she could freeze the marrow in your spine.”
“Girls, you should not speak as you do about Mrs. Van Vorst,” admonished Helen, “you know Mrs. Morrow says that she has suffered a great sorrow.”
“Pshaw, we all know that,” returned the Sport unfeelingly, “but that is no reason why she should make every one else suffer, too.”
“Granted,” rejoined Helen, “but she has grown to look at things through morbid eyes.”