CHAPTER XIV
AT THE TEA ROOM
The girls went to their rooms to tidy up for luncheon, though there wassome time before the meal would be announced.
By common consent the door was closed between the rooms, and on oneside of it the two D's faced each other.
"Did you ever see such a perfectly horrid, hateful, contemptible oldthing as that Fenn person?" exclaimed Dotty, her voice fairly shakenwith wrath. "I can't see how Mr. Forbes can bear to have him around! Heought to be excommunicated, or whatever they do to terrible people!"
"He IS awful, Dotty, I don't wonder you gave it to him! But you mustn'tdo it. He's Mr. Forbes' right hand man, and whatever Uncle Jeff tellshim to do, he'll do it. The idea of searching our trunks! I won't allowthem to touch mine, I can tell you that!"
"Oh, Dolly, now don't be stubborn. Why, for you to refuse to let themlook over your things would be the same as saying you had the thinghidden."
"Dorothy Rose! What a thing to say to me!"
"I'm not saying it to you! I mean, I am saying it to you, just to showyou what other people would say! You know it, Dolly. You know Fennwould say you had the earring."
"But, Dotty, it must be somewhere."
"Of course, it must be somewhere,--look here, Dollyrinda, you don'tknow anything about it, do you? Honest Injun?"
"How you talk, Dot. How should I know anything about it?"
"But do you?"
"Don't be silly."
"But, DO you?"
"Dotty, I'll get mad at you, if you just sit there saying, 'But doyou?' like a talking machine! Are you going to change your dress forluncheon?"
"No, I'm not. These frocks are good enough. But, Dolly, DO you? do youknow anything, ANYTHING at all, about the earring?"
Dolly was sitting on the edge of her little white bed. At Dotty'sreiteration of her query, Dolly threw her head down on the pillow andhid her face.
"Do you?" repeated Dotty, her voice now tinged with fear.
Dolly sat upright and looked at her. "Don't ask me, Dotty," she said,"I can't tell you."
"Can't tell me," cried Dotty, in bewilderment, "then who on earth COULDyou tell, I'd like to know!"
"I could tell mother! Oh, Dotty, I want to go home!"
"Well, you can't go home, not till day after to-morrow, anyway. What'sthe matter with you, Dolly, why can't you tell me what you know? Howcan I find the thing, and clear you from suspicion if you have secretsfrom me?"
"You can't, Dotty. Don't try."
Dolly spoke in a tense, strained way, as if trying to preserve hercalm. She sat down at their little dressing-table and began to brushher hair.
A tap came at the door, and in a moment, Bernice came in.
"Let me come in and talk to you girls," she begged. "Alicia is in atemper, and won't say anything except to snap out somethingquarrelsome. What are we going to do?"
"I don't know, Bernie," and Dotty looked as if at her wits' end. "It'sbad enough to put up with that old Fenn's hateful talk, but now Dolly'sgone queer, and you say Alicia has,--what ARE we to do?"
"Let's talk it all over with Mrs. Berry at lunch, she's real sensibleand she's very kind-hearted."
"Yes, she is. And there's the gong now. Come on, let's go down. Comeon, Dollikins, brace up, and look pretty! Heigho! come on, Alicia!"
Alicia appeared, looking sullen rather than sad, and the quartette wentdownstairs.
Mrs. Berry listened with interest to their story. Interest that quicklyturned to deep concern as the story went on.
"I don't like it," she said, as the girls paused to hear her comments."No carelessness or thoughtlessness could make that valuable earringdisappear off the face of the earth! I mean, it couldn't get LOST, itmust have been taken."
"By us?" flared out Alicia.
"Maybe not meaningly, maybe for a joke, maybe unconsciously; but it wascarried out of that room by some one, of that I'm certain."
"The idea of thinking we'd do it as a joke!" cried Bernice.
"But you told me about the joke Mr. Forbes played on you about the B.C. image, why mightn't one of you have taken this to tease him? Oh,girls, if any of you did,--give it back, I beg of you! Mr. Forbes is akind man, but a very just one. If you give it back at once, andexplain, he will forgive you, fully and freely. But if you delay toolong he will lose patience. And, too, you must know he wants to--"
"Wants to what, Mrs. Berry?" asked Dotty, for the lady had stoppedspeaking very suddenly.
"Never mind. I forgot myself. But Mr. Forbes has a very strong reasonfor wishing to sift this matter to the bottom. Don't, girls,--oh, DON'Tdeceive him!"
"What makes you think we're deceiving him?" cried Dotty. "That's theway old Fenn talks! Isn't he a disagreeable man, Mrs. Berry?"
"Mr. Fenn is peculiar," she admitted, "but it isn't nice for you tocriticise Mr. Forbes' secretary. He is a trusted employee, and of greatuse in his various capacities."
"But he was very rude to us," complained Alicia. "He was positivelyinsulting to Dolly and me."
"Don't remember it," counselled Mrs. Berry. "The least you have to dowith him the better. Forget anything he may have said, and keep out ofhis way all you can."
Mr. Forbes' housekeeper was a tactful and peaceable woman, and she wellknew the temperament and disposition of the secretary. She herselfdisliked him exceedingly, but it was part of her diplomacy to avoidopen encounter with him. And she deemed it best for the girls to followher course.
"I think," she said finally, "the best thing for you to do, is to gofor a nice motor ride in the park. It is a lovely day, and the ridewill do you good and make you feel a heap better. Then on your return,stop at a pretty tearoom, and have some cakes and chocolate, or ices;and while you're gone, I'll have a little talk with Mr. Forbes, and,who knows, maybe we might find the earring!"
"You're going to search our boxes!" cried Alicia. "Well, I won't submitto such an insult! I shall lock mine before I go out."
"So shall I," declared Dolly. "I think we all ought to. Really, Mrs.Berry, it's awful for you to do a thing like that!"
"Mercy me! girls, how you do jump at conclusions! I never said a wordabout searching your rooms. I had no thought of such a thing! Youmustn't condemn me unheard! You wouldn't like that, yourselves!"
"Indeed, we wouldn't, Mrs. Berry," cried Dolly, smiling at her. "Iapologise for my burst of temper, I'm sure. But I hate to be suspected."
"Be careful, Dolly, not to be selfish. Others hate to be suspectedtoo--"
"Yes, but _I_'m innocent!" cried Dolly, and as soon as she had spokenshe blushed fiery red, and her sweet face was covered with confusion.
"Meaning somebody else ISN'T innocent!" spoke up Alicia; "who, please?"
"Me, probably," said Dotty, striving to turn the matter off with alaugh. "Dolly and I always suspect each other on principle--"
"Oh, pooh! This is no time to be funny!" and Alicia looked daggers atthe smiling Dotty.
"You're right, Alicia, it isn't!" she flashed back, and then Mrs.Berry's calm voice interrupted again.
"Now, girlies, don't quarrel among yourselves. There's trouble enoughafoot, without your adding to it. Take my advice. Go and put on somepretty dresses and then go for a ride, as I told you, and get your teaat the 'Queen Titania' tearoom. It's just lately been opened, and it'sa most attractive place. But promise not to squabble. Indeed, I wishyou'd promise not to discuss this matter of the earring. But I supposethat's too much to ask!"
"Yes, indeed, Mrs. Berry," and Bernice smiled at her. "I'm sure wecouldn't keep that promise if we made it!"
"Well, don't quarrel. It can't do any good. Run along now, and dress."
The cheery good-nature of the housekeeper helped to raise the girls'depressed spirits, and after they had changed into pretty afternooncostumes and donned their coats and furs, they had at least, partiallyforgotten their troubles of the morning.
But not for long. As they sped along in the great, comfortable car,each found her thoughts reverting to the sad episode, an
d oh, with whatvaried feelings!
Suddenly, Bernice broke out with a new theory.
"I'll tell you what!" she exclaimed; "Uncle Jeff hid that thinghimself, to see how we would act! Then he pretended to suspect us! Thatman is studying us! Oh, you needn't tell ME! I've noticed it ever sincewe came. He watches everything we do, and when he says anythingespecial, he looks closely, to see how we're going to take it."
"I've noticed that, too," agreed Dolly. "But it's silly, Bernie, tothink he took his own jewel."
"Just to test us, you know. I can't make out WHY he wants to study usso, but maybe he's writing a book or something like that. Else why didhe want not only Alicia and me but two of our friends to come for thisvisit? He studies us, not only as to our own characters, but the effectwe have on each other."
Dotty looked at Bernice with interest.
"You clever thing!" she cried; "I do believe you're right! I've caughtUncle Forbes frequently looking at one or another of us with the mostquizzical expression and listening intently for our answers to somequestion of right or wrong or our opinions about something."
"I've noticed it," said Dolly, though in an indifferent tone, "but Idon't think he's studying us. I think he's so unused to young peoplethat everything we do seems strange to him. Why any of our fatherswould know what we're going to say before we say it. Mine would anyhowand so would Dot's. But Mr. Forbes is surprised at anything we say ordo because he never saw girls at close range before. I think weinterest him just like his specimens do."
"That's it," cried Dotty, "you've struck it, Doll. We're just specimensto him. He's studying a new kind of creature! And, maybe he did want tosee what we'd do in given circumstances,--like an unjust accusation,and so he arranged this tragic situation."
"No," said Dolly, still in that unnerved, listless way, "no, that won'tdo, Dotty. If it were true, he'd never let Mr. Fenn be so rude to us.Why, this morning, I'm sure,--I KNOW,--Mr. Forbes was just as uncertainof what had become of that earring as--as any of us were."
"Well, have it your own way," and Dotty smiled good-naturedly at herchum, "but here's my decision. That thing is lost. Somehow or other,for some ridiculous reason, blame seems to be attached to myDollyrinda. I won't stand it! I hereby announce that I'm going to findthat missing gimcrack before I go back to my native heath,--if I haveto take all summer!"
"Aren't you going home on Wednesday?" cried Dolly, looking aghast atthe idea.
"Not unless that old thing is found! I'll telephone my dear parents notto look for me until they see me. I'll hunt every nook and cranny ofMr. Forbes' house, and when I get through, I'll hunt over again. Butfind the thing, I will! So there, now!"
"Why do you say Dolly is suspected?" asked Alicia.
"Oh, you all know she is, just because she hooked the foolish thinginto her lace. She put it on the table after that, and every one of usprobably handled it, but no, it is laid to Dolly! Just because she'sthe only one of us incapable of such a thing,--I guess!"
"Why, Dot Rose, what a speech!" and Dolly almost laughed at thebelligerent Dotty. "None of us would take it wrongly, I'm sure--but--"
"Well, but what?" demanded Alicia, as Dolly paused.
"Oh, nothing, Alicia, but the same old arguments.Mistake,--unintentional,--caught in our dresses,--and all that." Dollyspoke wearily, as if worn out with the subject.
"Well, I've a new theory," said Dotty, "I believe that Fenn man stoleit!"
The other three laughed, but Dotty went on. "Yes, I do. You see, he'snever had a chance to take any of the treasures before, 'cause UncleForbes would know he was the thief. But now he has all us four to layit on, so he made the most of his chance."
"Oh, Dotty, I can't believe it!" said Bernice. "He didn't act like athief this morning. He was more like an avenging justice."
"That's just his smartness! Make it seem as if we did it, you know."
"Nothing in it," and Dolly smiled at Dotty's theory. "He wasn't hereyesterday, at all. He didn't know that I hooked the old thing on mywaist,--oh, I WISH I hadn't done that!"
"Never you mind, Dollums," Dotty said, endearingly. "If he did do it,we'll track him down. Because, girls, I tell you I'm going to find thatearring. And what Dorothy Rose says, goes! See?"
Dotty's brightness cheered up the others, and as they drove through thepark, there were many sights of interest, and after a time the talkdrifted from the subject that had so engrossed them.
And when at last they stopped at the new tea room and went in, thebeauty and gaiety of the place made them almost forget their trouble.
"I'll have cafe parfait," said Dotty, "with heaps of little fancycakes. We can't get real FANCY cakes in Berwick, and I do love 'em!"
The others were of a like mind, and soon they were feasting on the richand delicate confections that the modern tea room delights to provide.
While they sat there, Muriel Brown came in, accompanied by two of hergirl friends.
"Oh, mayn't we chum with you?" Muriel cried, and our four girls saidyes, delightedly.
"How strange we should meet," said Dolly, but Muriel laughed andresponded, "Not so very, as I'm here about four or five days out of theseven. I just simply love the waffles here, don't you?"
And then the girls all laughed and chattered and the New Yorkersinvited the other four to several parties and small affairs.
"New York is the most hospitable place I ever saw!" declared Dotty. "Weseem to be asked somewhere every day for a week."
"Everybody's that," laughed Muriel. "But you must come to these thingswe're asking you for, won't you?"
"I don't believe we can promise," said Bernice, suddenly growingserious. "You see, we may go home on Wednesday."
"Day after to-morrow? Oh, impossible! Don't say the word!" And with alaugh, Muriel dashed away the unwelcome thought. "I shall depend uponyou," she went on, "especially for the Friday party. That's one of thebest of all! You just MUST be at it!"
"If we're here, we will," declared Alicia, carried away by the gayinsistence. "And I'm 'most sure Bernice and I will be here, even if theothers aren't."
"I want you all," laughed Muriel, "but I'll take as many as I can get."
Then into the limousine again, and off for home.
"Oh," cried Dolly, "that horrid business! I had almost forgotten it!"
"We can't forget it till it's settled," said Dotty, and her lips cametightly together with a grim expression that she showed only whendesperately in earnest.