Pritchard had to declare that she must go
back to Mrs. Moss. Kissing the girl again, she bade her forget
everything for the time being and rest. And though she stifled the
deep sigh that rose involuntarily, Miss Pritchard felt as if she was
staggering as she left the room.

CHAPTER XXXII

For some time Miss Pritchard and Mrs. Moss discussed, not as they had
purposed, the way out of it, but the affair itself: the change of names
and destinations and the year of masquerading. They marvelled equally at
the audacity and the success of the scheme, and the various circumstances
that had favored it. Miss Pritchard reviewed the year aloud in the light
of the discovery, with eager comment from the other.

"How Elsie could have accepted so much from you, knowing all the while
she was deceiving you, I cannot understand!" cried Mrs. Moss, shaking her
head sadly.

"Accepted! Oh, Mrs. Moss, if you could only know half the girl gave, you
wouldn't speak of accepting!" protested Miss Pritchard. "She has made
this year the happiest of my life, that captivating, lovely child has.
As for deceiving--she didn't mean any such thing, and it wasn't real
deceit in her case. She said just now she always felt as if I were
really her cousin. When she swapped, she did it in such a whole-hearted
way that she was herself almost as deluded as I. And later, when she
began to realize, she suffered--looking back, I begin to understand that
she has suffered torture."

Mrs. Moss suddenly bethought herself.

"The question is, what is to be done?" she repeated. "You see, I have
left that girl in Enderby in a most uncomfortable position. The
Middletons as yet know nothing. I shall have to break it to them, but
before I do so, I want to come to some sort of an understanding with you."

"I confess, I don't see any way out of it at this moment," returned Miss
Pritchard. "Dear me, I can't yet really realize we're in it."

"The simple thing would seem to be to just----"

"Swap back? Oh, it wouldn't be possible after all this time, my dear
Mrs. Moss!" cried Miss Pritchard, really aghast.

"We shall have to see how the Middletons feel, of course," admitted Mrs.
Moss. "Oh, Miss Pritchard, couldn't you go back with me to-night and
then all of us talk it over together? I don't believe we'll ever come to
any understanding unless you do. My flying back and forth between you
like a shuttlecock isn't going to amount to anything."

"Yes, I