"Don't have any time to sit," he retorted promptly. "Anyhow, it will
give some, won't it? It would if it was tied with elastic instead of
thread. Have you any elastic?"
Lollie came up just then, and Jim took himself and his mending
downstairs. Luckily, Aunt Selina found several letters in his room that
afternoon while she was going over his clothes, and as it took Jim some
time to explain them, she forgot the task she had given me altogether.
When Lollie came up to the roof, she closed the door to the stairs, and
coming over, drew a chair close to mine.
"Have you seen much of Tom today?" she asked, as an introduction.
"I suppose you mean Mr. Harbison, Lollie," I said. "No--not any more
than I could help. Don't whisper, he couldn't possibly hear you. And if
it's scandal I don't want to know it."
"Look here, Kit," she retorted, "you needn't be so superior. If I like
to talk scandal, I'm not so sure you aren't making it."
That was the way right along: I was making scandal; I brought them there
to dinner; I let Bella in!
And, of course, Anne came up then, and began on me at once.
"You are a very bad girl," she began. "What do you mean by treating Tom
Harbison the way you do? He is heart-broken."
"I think you exaggerate my influence over him," I retorted. "I haven't
treated him badly, because I haven't paid any attention to him."
Anne threw up her hands.
"There you are!" she said. "He worked all day yesterday fixing this
place for you--yes, for you, my dear. I am not blind--and last night you
refused to let him bring you up."
"He told you!" I flamed.
"He wondered what he had done. And as you wouldn't let him come within
speaking distance of you, he came to me."
"I am sorry, Anne, since you are fond of him," I said. "But to me he is
impossible--intolerable. My reasons are quite sufficient."
"Kit is perfectly right, Anne," Leila broke in. "I tell you, there is
something queer about him," she added in a portentous whisper.
Anne stiffened.
"He is perfect," she declared. "Of good family, warm-hearted,
courageous, handsome, clever--what more do you ask?"
"Honesty," said Leila hotly. "That a man should be what he says he is."
Anne and I both stared.
"It is your Mr. Harbison," Leila went on, "who tried to escape from the
house by putting a board across to the next roof!"
"I don't believe it," said Anne. "You might bring me a picture of him,
board in hand, and I wouldn't believe it."
"Don't then," Lollie said cruelly. "Let him get away with your pearls;
they are yours. Only, as sure as anything, the man who tried to escape
from the house had a reason for escaping, and the papers said a man in
evening dress and light overcoat. I found Mr. Harbison's overcoat today
lying in a heap in one of the maids' rooms, and it was covered with
brick dust all over the front. A button had even been torn off."