Page:Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car.djvu/196

186 "There! I am sorry I said that!" exclaimed Betty, who thought, too late, of the effect it might have on the overwrought nerves of the stranger. "But really there isn't any ghost, you know."

The girl smiled weakly.

"Take some more water," urged Mrs. Mackson. "And smell these ammonia salts."

"I'll go get some of that cold chocolate in the vacuum bottle," volunteered Grace.

"No, please," said the girl. "I shall be all right presently. I can go on. I didn't find the papers I wanted. I was sure he had hidden them here."

"We hope you won't go until you have told us a little something about yourself," said Betty, with an inviting smile. "We don't want to pry into your private affairs," she went on, "but we would like to help you. And please don't disappear so mysteriously again. You are the girl who fell out of the branches of a tree; aren't you?"

"Yes," and she smiled faintly, "I am Carrie Norton. I knew you as soon as I saw you all again. Oh' please don't think harshly of me, but I have been so worried I did not know what I was doing. I have always regretted repaying your kindness so shabbily, but really"