ever get able, just help somebody else out of trouble. I tell you God told me to give you what you need, without any strings to it! And, oh yes, Lutie, if you should find any more of this, just bring it to me at once no matter how busy I may be. It was a necklace, and it had green stones in it. Big ones and little ones.”
Lutie’s eyes grew wide.
“I wonder if that green bead I picked up was one!” she exclaimed. “It was just a tiny little bit, looked like glass.
At first I thought it was a bead, but then I thought it was glass, and I swept it up with the dust. It hadn’t any hole like a bead in it.”
“Where did you find it, Lutie? What did you do with it?”
“Why, I found it in the big crack between the floorboards over under the bureau. I had to pry it out with a hairpin. I gathered it up with the dust when I thought it wasn’t anything but glass and put it in the waste for Thomas to burn. Wait, I’ll run down and see if I can find it. Thomas went down to the grocery for Cook. I don’t think he’s burned the trash yet!”
Chapter 11
Lutie sped on swift feet and was presently back again, her eyes shining, a tiny green particle held in the palm of her hand.
Miss Catherwood examined it carefully and Sherrill drew close.
“It is, it is!” cried Sherrill. “It’s one of the wee little stones by the clasp, Aunt Pat!”
“Yes,” said Aunt Pat grimly. “Whoever got away with the rest of the stones missed this one anyway.”
Then the old lady turned to Lutie.
“Well, you’ve done me another favor, Lutie. Here’s a bit of money I happen to have in hand. Take it and run home now and get something extra nice for supper just for my thanks offering. Tell your mother I’ll be over soon.”
When Lutie had finished her happy and incoherent thanks and gone, Sherrill came and put her arms around the old lady’s neck.
“You are wonderful, Aunt Pat!” she said and kissed her tenderly.
“Nonsense!” said the old lady with an embarrassed grin. “Nothing wonderful about it! What’s money for if it isn’t to help along your fellow men and women? And besides, you don’t know but I may have my own selfish reasons for doing it.”
“A lot of people don’t feel that way about it, Aunt Pat!”
“Well, that’s their opinion!” she answered. “All I’ve got to say is they miss a lot, then.”
“But Aunt Pat, aren’t you going to do anything more about this now? Aren’t you going to call the police and report the loss, or—ask anybody, or anything? Aren’t you even going to tell the servants?”
“I’ve already told the servants that someone who was here last night lost a valuable necklace, and offered a good-sized reward for finding it, but only Gemmie knows it was your necklace. Gemmie would miss it, of course, when she came to put your things away. She was always very fond of those jewels and was pleased that I was giving them to you. She would have to know. But Gemmie won’t say anything.”
“But dear Aunt Pat! I do want everything possible done to find it even if it makes a lot of unpleasantness for me. I’d rather have it found. To think that you kept it all these years and then I should lose it the very first time I wore it! Oh, Aunt Pat, I must get it back to you!”
“Back to me!” snorted the old lady, quite incensed. “It’s not mine anymore. It’s yours, child, and I mean to have it back to you, if possible of course, but if not there’s nothing to break your heart about. Stop those hysterics and smile. You are just as well off as you were last week. Better, I think, for you are rid of that selfish pig of a lover of yours!”
Sherrill suddenly giggled and then buried her face on her aunt’s shoulder.
“Aunt Pat,” she said mournfully, “why do you suppose this had to happen to me? Why did I have to be punished like this?”
“I wouldn’t call it punishment, child,” said the old lady, patting Sherrill’s shoulder. “I’d say it was a blessing the Lord sent to save you from a miserable life with a man who would have broken your heart.”
“But if that is so,” wailed Sherrill, “why didn’t He stop me before it went so far? Before