But Ellen met the glance unflinchingly, and with a baffled sense of being mistaken the girl hurried from the room. When she returned shortly afterward and paused in the doorway, she presented a winning picture.
She had donned a short khaki skirt and a pair of riding leggings such as she had been accustomed to wear in the West, and the broad sombrero crowning her golden hair outlined it like a halo. A simple blouse turned away to give freedom to the firm white throat completed the costume. Dimpling with anticipation, she held up her tin pail.
“I’m off, Aunt Ellen,” she called. “You shall have your shortcake if there is a berry within five miles.”
The woman listened to the fall of the light step on the stairs and the fragment of a song that came from the girl’s lips until the last note of the music died away; then she called Melvina.
“Melviny!”
“Yes, marm.”
“I want you should find Tony and tell him 239 to harness up. There’s somethin’ I need done in the village.”
“All right, Miss Webster.”
“Bring me a sheet of paper an’ a pencil before you go.”
The nurse entered with the desired articles.