Page:The Star in the Window.pdf/20

10 materials from the windows into the circle of artificial light. She then began pulling down the window-shades. She wished Aunt Augusta would leave the shades up till it was really dark. "But we don't want the whole neighborhood gaping in on us!" her aunt would be sure to retort, if she suggested it.

It was when she was pulling down the last shade, shutting out the last bit of glorious pink glow, that she remarked, "I guess I'll go outdoors for a little while."

"Outdoors!" Aunt Augusta repeated. "At this time of day! You ought to have thought of that when the sun was high, it seems to me."

"There wasn't a sunset then. It's so pretty out now."

"Pretty! It won't be very pretty for that throat of yours."

"Perhaps the air will do me good," Reba replied. She went toward the closet where she kept her hat and coat. "I won't stay long."

Aunt Augusta turned her head back over her shoulder, and spoke to the girl's mother.

"Eunice," she demanded, "are you going to allow that girl to go out at this time of day?"

"No, no. Of course I'm not," the invalid whined. "No, Reba, no. You're not to go. You might get tonsilitis again."

Reba stood uncertainly by the closet door.

"I've been in all day," she suggested. "I won't stay long." She put her hand on the knob of the closet door.

"Didn't you hear what your mother said?" Aunt Augusta inquired sharply.