garden. Seeing Cissy, he transferred his stare to her. Snatching the
note from him, she tore it open, and read in Piney's well-known scrawl,
"Dad won't let me come to you now, dear, but I'll try to slip out late
to-night." Why should she want to come? She had said nothing about
coming NOW--and why should her father prevent her? Cissy crushed the
note between her fingers, and faced the boy.
"What are you staring at--idiot?"
The boy grinned hysterically, a little frightened at Cissy's
straightened brows and snapping eyes.
"Get away! there's no answer."
The boy ran off, and Cissy returned to the drawing-room. Then it
occurred to her that the servant had not answered the bell. She rang
again furiously. There was no response. She called down the basement
staircase, and heard only the echo of her voice in the depths. How still
the house was! Were they ALL out,--Susan, Norah, the cook, the Chinaman,
and the gardener? She ran down into the kitchen; the back door was open,
the fires were burning, dishes were upon the table, but the kitchen was
empty. Upon the floor lay a damp copy of the "extra." She picked it
up quickly. Several black headlines stared her in the face. "Enormous
Defalcation!" "Montagu Trixit Absconded!" "50,000 Dollars Missing!" "Run
on the Bank!"
She threw the paper through the open door as she would have hurled back
the accusation from living lips. Then, in a revulsion of feeling lest
any one should find her there, she ran upstairs and locked herself in
her own room.
So that was what it all meant! All!--from the laugh of the Secamp girls
to the turning away of the townspeople as she went by. Her father was a
thief who had stolen money from the bank and run away leaving her alone
to bear it! No! It was all a lie--a wicked, jealous lie! A foolish lie,
for how could he steal money from HIS OWN bank? Cissy knew very little
of her father--perhaps that was why she believed in him; she knew still
less of business, but she knew that HE did. She had often heard them
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