just at the foot of the stairs she remembered the emeralds! The emeralds and the stranger! And down upon her like some gigantic bird of prey swept her fear of the night before!
Chapter 10
Miss Catherwood was already at the breakfast table looking as fresh and chipper as if she had gone to bed at nine o’clock the night before. She was opening her mail, and there was a smile of satisfaction on her face. She gave Sherrill a keen look as she came into the room.
“Well, I’m glad to see you’re still a good sport!” she said with her funny twisted grin. “But you didn’t sleep very well, did you? There are dark circles under your eyes. Sit down and eat a good breakfast. Oh, I know you think you don’t want a thing but a cup of coffee, but that’s not the way to act. You’ve got a few hard days before you, and you’ve got to keep your looks through them or people will say you are mourning after that sap-head, and you don’t want that. Come, set to work. We’ve got to get at sending back those presents. You’ll feel better when they are out of the house.”
Sherrill gave a little moan and dropped her face into her hands.
“Oh!” she groaned. “How impossible it all seems! But if I could only find the necklace, I wouldn’t mind any of the rest!”
Aunt Pat flung a wise glance at Sherrill’s bowed head.
“That’ll turn up all right,” she said. “Come, child, perk up. I’ve been wondering. Can you think back and be sure when you last had it?”
Sherrill shook her head.
“No. I’ve been trying, but I can’t be sure. If I only could, it would take a big load from my mind.”
“Well, I can!” said Aunt Pat. “You had the necklace on when you sat in the dining room eating your supper after you came in from outside. I know, for I sat and watched the lights in those stones, and I remember thinking how well they became you, and how they brought out the color in your cheeks and the gold in your hair.”
Sherrill’s head came up suddenly with a light of hope in her eyes and a soft flush on her cheeks.
“Are you sure you saw them on me at the table, Aunt Pat? Perfectly sure?”
“Perfectly sure,” said Aunt Pat steadily, studying the girl quietly.
“Well, that’s something!” said Sherrill with a sigh of relief. “At least I didn’t lose it—in the garden!”
“No, you didn’t lose it in the garden,” said Aunt Pat with a wicked little grin. “Now don’t think anything more about it. Let’s get at those presents. First you sit down and work out a little model note sweet and gracious that will fit all the presents and not tell a thing you don’t want known.”
Sherrill presently brought it to her aunt for her approval.
My dear—
The sudden change in our plans for the wedding has left me in an embarrassing situation, having in my possession a lot of lovely gifts that do not by right belong either to me or to Mrs. McArthur. I am therefore of course returning all the gifts and apologizing for having been the unintentional cause of so much trouble to the donors.
But I do want to add just a little word of my appreciation for your beautiful gift, and to thank you for your delightful intention for my pleasure. It is so wonderful to see such gracious evidence of friendship.
Very sincerely,
Sherrill Cameron
“I think that is quite a nice bit of English!” said Aunt Pat with satisfaction when she had read it. “It says all that needs to be said and tells nothing. It ought to be published. It would be so helpful to other girls caught in like predicaments.”
Sherrill broke into hysterical laughter.
“Oh, Aunt Pat! You’re a scream! As if there were ever another girl caught in such a predicament!” she said.
“I don’t know,” said the old lady dryly. “You can’t tell how many girls have had a situation like yours; only most of them likely didn’t have the nerve to handle it the way you did yours. There must have been some girls who were too great cowards to back down from a church full of wedding guests, and the wedding march just on the tiptoe to begin. They probably paid afterward, and paid double, too. Surely, Sherrill, you aren’t the only one who ever found at the last minute that her lover was made of coarse clay. Don’t ever