Two Little Women on a Holiday - Carolyn Wells (top romance novels txt) 📗

“What do you mean by that speech Dotty?” asked Bernice, as Alicia kept on crying.

“I mean just what I say. Alicia knows where the earring is, or, if she doesn’t know that, she knows something about it that she won’t tell us.”

“What is it, Alicia?” said her uncle, kindly. “If you know anything at all, tell us, won’t you?”

“I don’t, Uncle. I don’t know ANYTHING about it!” and Alicia wept more than ever.

“Well, the thing to do is to find it,” said Fenn gazing closely at Alicia. “Where we find it will disclose who took it.”

“I agree with you, Mr. Fenn,” said a voice from the doorway, and there stood Dolly Fayre!

“Oh,” cried Dotty, “I knew you wouldn’t run away!”

“I did,” returned Dolly, looking very sober. “I couldn’t stand things here, and I was tempted to go home.”

“Did you start out with that idea?” asked Dotty.

“No; never thought of such a thing when I went out. But I took a bus that turned around and went to the station, so that made me think of Berwick and I got homesick for mother, and I just couldn’t help wanting to go to her. And I telephoned back here that I was going. Then, I had no sooner done that, than it seemed to me a cowardly thing to do, after all, and I changed my mind quick and came right back here. I rode up on top of a stage, and the trip in this lovely bright air made me feel a heap better. Now then, I want to say, once for all, that I didn’t take that earring, but I’m going to find out who DID, and also I’m going to find the jewel. I don’t know which I’ll find first, but one means the other.”

“Just what I said, Miss Fayre,” exclaimed Fenn. “I’ll join forces with you, and we’ll see about this thing. We’ll find the missing jewel and we’ll find out who took it, but we’ll have to put up a search.”

“All my things are at your disposal,” said Dolly; “look through all my cupboards and bureau drawers as you like. I’m not afraid.”

“Of course not,” said Fenn, “after your absence this morning! You had a fine opportunity to dispose of the jewel!”

“How dare you!” cried Dolly, turning white with rage. “I have told you truthfully where I went and why.”

“Let her alone, Fenn,” said Mr. Forbes, sharply. “You talk too much. Run along now, girls; we’ll let the matter rest for to-day. I’ll consult with Mr. Fenn, and I don’t think we’ll search your belongings. I can’t think any one of you has intentionally concealed the jewel. It’s lost but not stolen, that’s what I think.”

“You dear old thing!” and Bernice impulsively threw her arms around her uncle’s neck. “I think you’re right. But it must be found!”

“It must be found!” repeated Dolly. “Otherwise suspicion will always rest on me.”

“Not on you any more than the rest of us,” declared Dotty, “but there’s no use in hunting any more in this room. It simply isn’t here.”

They had searched the room in which the jewel had been kept, thoroughly and repeatedly. So the girls went off to their own rooms to talk it all over again.

“You’re too hard on them, Fenn,” said Mr. Forbes to his secretary, when they were alone.

“But it’s a clear case, sir. That Fayre girl took it. She got scared and tried to run home, then decided it would be better to face the music, so she returned. She’s the one, of course. She adores those old trinkets; the others don’t care two cents for them. She put it on her dress,—probably she took it off again, but after that the temptation to possess the thing was too strong for her. She thought you’d not miss it, and she carried it off. Then, when she was out this morning, she either threw it away, or secreted it somewhere. Perhaps she took it to some friend for safe keeping.”

“I don’t believe it, Fenn. I’ve studied the four girls pretty closely and Dolly Fayre is, I think, the most frank and honest and conscientious of them all. Why, I’d suspect either of my own nieces before I Would Dolly.”

“You’re generous, sir. But you’re mistaken. Miss Fayre is the culprit, and we’ll fasten the theft on her yet.”

“I hope not,—I sincerely hope not. But it’s a queer business, Fenn, a very queer business.”

“It’s all of that, Mr. Forbes, but we’ll get at the truth of it yet.”

Meantime the four girls were talking over the matter. But not all together. The two D’s, in their own room, and the other two girls in theirs were having separate confabs.

“Now, Dolly Fayre,” Dotty was saying, “you tell me EVERYTHING you know about this thing! I don’t want any holding back or concealing of any suspicions or doubts you may have.”

“It isn’t really a suspicion, Dotty, but I—will tell you. It’s only that just as we left the room, the museum room I call it, yesterday afternoon, we were all out, and Alicia ran back. She said she had left her handkerchief on the table. And she went straight to that very table where I had laid the earring. Now, I can’t suspect Alicia, but that’s what she did.”

“Well, Dolly,” and Dotty looked thoughtful, “that’s enough to cast suspicion on her. She went to that very table?”

“Yes. Of course, I didn’t think anything about it at the time, but now I remember it distinctly. That’s why I wanted to go home and tell Mother all about it, and ask her if I ought to tell Mr. Forbes about Alicia.”

“I see. I don’t know myself what you ought to do. I’ve been thinking it might be Alicia all the time. I hate to suspect her, as much as you do. But if she ran back, and went to that table, and then the jewel that laid there was gone, it certainly looks queer. Decidedly queer.”

“Well, what shall I do?”

“I suppose you’ll have to keep still, unless you’re actually accused of taking it. You can’t very well tell on Alicia.”

“That’s what I think.”

“But if they really accuse you,—and Mr. Fenn has already done so.”

“Oh, Fenn! I don’t care what he says. If Mr. Forbes doesn’t think I took it, I don’t want to say anything about Alicia.”

“Well, let’s wait and see. After what you’ve just told me, I think she did take it. But I don’t WANT to think that.”

Now, in the next room, Alicia and Bernice were talking confidentially and in low tones.

“Of course, Dolly must have taken it,” Alicia said, slowly.

“I can’t believe that,” said Bernice. “I know Dolly Fayre awfully well, and I just about ‘most KNOW she couldn’t do such a thing.”

“I daresay she never was tempted before. You can’t tell what you may do until there’s a sudden temptation. She might have thought it was no harm, when Uncle Jeff has so many of such trinkets. She might have thought he’d never miss it—”

“No,” dissented Bernice. “Dolly never thought out those things. If she did take it, it was just on the spur of the moment, and, as you say, because of a sudden irresistible temptation. And the minute after she was doubtless sorry, but then she was ashamed to confess or return it.”

It was luncheon time then, and the girls went downstairs together, with no disclosures of their suspicions of each other.

At the luncheon table the subject was freely discussed.

Dolly explained to Mrs. Berry that, after she had telephoned she was going home, she felt that it was a cowardly thing to do, and that she ought to remain and see the matter through.

“You see,” Dolly said, smiling, “it was a sudden temptation, when I got to the station, to go home. Just the sight of the ticket office, and the train gates, gave me a wave of homesickness and I wanted to see Mother so terribly, that I thought I’d just go. But as soon as I’d telephoned, I realised that I oughtn’t to do it, so I came right back here. I didn’t telephone I’d changed my mind, for I thought I’d be here so soon. Mrs. Berry, what do you think became of the earring?”

“I don’t know, I’m sure, my dear. I don’t think I could ever believe that any one of you girls took it with any wrong intent. Did one of you just borrow it? To study it as a curio or anything like that?”

“No!” cried Bernice. “That’s absurd. If I’d wanted to do that I should have asked Uncle’s permission.”

“Of course you would,” and good Mrs. Berry sighed at the undoubted fallacy of her theory.

It was during luncheon that the telephone bell rang, and Geordie Knapp invited the girls to a matinee at the Hippodrome.

“They must come,” he said to Mrs. Berry, who had answered his call. “Please let them. It’s a big party. We’ve three boxes; my mother is going with us, and all the rest are young people. I know your girls will like it.”

“Of course they will,” Mrs. Berry replied. “I’ll be glad to have them go. Wait; I’ll ask them.”

The invitation was heard with delight, and Bernice answered Geordie for the others that they’d all be glad to go.

“Good!” cried Geordie. “We’ll call for you in our big car. Be ready on time.”

They promised and hastened through luncheon to go to dress.

“I’m glad you’re going,” kind Mrs. Berry said; “it’ll take your minds off this old earring business. Have a real good time, and don’t even think of anything unpleasant.”

So the girls started off in gay spirits, resolved not to worry over the lost jewel.

During the intermission at the matinee Dotty chanced to be talking to Geordie alone, and she told him about the mystery, and asked him what he thought. The boy was greatly interested, and asked for all the details. So Dotty told him all, even of Dolly’s seeing Alicia