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Page 48
"The lost is found! Well, young lady, this is a pretty performance! What
do you mean by shocking your fond relatives and friends almost into
catalepsy? I happened to drop in at the studio just as Joyce got your
message, and she and Betty were at their wits' end to account for your
disappearance."
"Oh, I'm so _glad_ to see you," answered Mary. "You can't imagine! I'm
even as glad as I was that time you happened along when the Indian
chased me." She ignored his question as entirely as if he had not asked
it.
He asked it again when they were presently seated on a homeward bound
car. "What I want to know is, what made you wander from your own
fireside?"
Mary felt her cheeks burn. She was prepared to make a full confession to
the girls, but not for worlds would she make it to him. Quickly turning
her back on him as if to look at something that had attracted her
attention in the street, she groped frantically around in her mind for
an answer. He leaned forward, peering around till he could see her face,
and repeated the question.
"Oh," she answered indifferently, bending slightly to examine the toe of
her shoe with a little frown, as if it interested her more than the
question. "I just went out into the wide world to seek my fortune. You
know I never had a chance before."
"And did you find it?"
She laughed. "Well, some people might not think so, but I'm satisfied."
"Did you have any adventures?" he persisted.
"Yes, heaps and heaps, but I'm saving them to go in my memoirs, so you
needn't ask what they were."
"Lost on Broadway, or Arizona Mary's Mystery!" exclaimed Phil. "I shall
never rest easy until I unearth it."
"Then you'll have a long spell of uneasiness," was the grim reply.
"Horses couldn't drag it from me."
He had begun his questioning merely in a spirit of banter, but as she
stubbornly persisted in her refusals, he began to think that she really
had had some ridiculous adventure, and was determined to find out what
it was. So he set traps for her, and cross-questioned her, secretly
amused at the quick-witted way in which she continually baffled him.
"I see that you are sadly changed," he said finally, with a shake of the
head. "The little Mary I used to know would have given the whole thing
away by this time--would have blurted out the truth before she knew what
she was doing. She was too honest and straight-forward to evade a
question. But you've grown as worldly-wise as an old trout--won't bite
at any kind of bait. Never mind, though, I'll get you yet."
Thus put on her guard, Mary refused to tell even the girls what had
possessed her to take secret leave that morning, but as she passed Joyce
in the hall she whispered imploringly, "_Please_ don't ask me to tell
now. It isn't much, but I don't want to tell while he's in the house. He
has been teasing me so."
"I'd stay to lunch if anybody would ask me three times," announced Phil,
presently. "I have to have my welcome assured."
"I'll ask you if Mary is willing," said Joyce, who had gone back to her
work. "She has promised to be chef to-day."
Mary regarded him doubtfully, as if weighing the matter, then said, "I'm
willing if he'll promise not to mention what happened this morning
another single time. And he can order any two dishes in the cook-book
that can be prepared in an hour, and I'll make them; that is, of course,
if the materials are in the house."
"Then I choose doughnuts," was the ready answer. "Doughnuts with holes
in them and sugar sprinkled over the top, and light as a feather; the
kind you used to keep in a yellow bowl with a white stripe around it, on
the middle shelf in the Wigwam pantry. Gee! But they were good! I've
never come across any like them since except in my dreams. And for the
second choice--let me see!" He pursed up his lips reflectively. "I
believe I'd like that to be a surprise, so Mistress-Mary-quite-contrary,
you may choose that yourself."
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