e
two girls had ever been separated.

"Oh, I don't know. She must have had some very good reason," Betty
returned. "Polly wrote me that she had, and now we must not believe
that she did not love us as much as ever. She wasn't able to explain
the particulars just at present; but if we only trust her and forgive
her some day we will understand."

Mollie frowned. With a much quieter and more amiable temperament than
her twin, yet nearly eighteen years of intimate living with her had
given her a pretty clear comprehension of her sister's character.
Privately Mollie was puzzled over Polly's behavior and a good deal
worried. It was not like Polly to have conceived so sudden a devotion
to Esther as to be unwilling to leave her for two weeks. And her claim
that she might not be particularly happy at home because of her
stepbrother's presence was not convincing. For Betty Ashton had
invited Polly to be her guest. No, Polly certainly had some special
design in staying on in New York. Of this Mollie was completely
convinced. But what the purpose was, neither from her own imaginings
nor from any hint dropped by her sister's letters, could she get the
slightest clue.

The three girls had come to a narrow path through the woods, and for a
little while were compelled to walk in single file. For a few moments
they were silent, each one busy with her own thoughts, Mollie happening
to be in the middle.

"I believe I'll ask Billy what he thinks," she remarked suddenly aloud.
And then she bit her lips, blushing until the very tips of her ears
grew warm. For Meg and Betty were both laughing in the most ridiculous
way.

"Is it as bad as that, Mollie?" Meg teased.

"Ask Billy what he thinks on one or all subjects, dear?" Betty queried.

To both of which questions Mollie naturally deigned no reply.

She and Billy Webster were extremely good friends. Indeed, they seemed
always to have been since the day of their first meeting, when she had
bound up his injured head. And this winter, with Polly away and Betty
so busy and Meg wrapped up in keeping house and Sylvia spending all her
spare hours in studying with Dr. Barton when not at school, she had
enjoyed the walks and talks with the young man perhaps more than usual.
But it was not because of their intimacy that she had considered
putting this problem of Polly's failure to return home before him. Her
reason was that in their long conversations about her sister, Billy had