Crossing the little park-like square, which lay on the way to school, she came upon Veronica walking slowly up and down the sidewalk, intently searching for something on the ground. She was very pale and showed signs of great agitation. It was the first time Katherine had met her face to face since she had left the group.
“Have you lost something?” asked Katherine abruptly.
“No,” said Veronica, straightening up and flushing deeply, “that is, nothing much, I—I just dropped a—something out of my purse along here somewhere.”
Veronica gave a last frantic look along the walk.
“It was a—” She hesitated, and then burst out:
“Oh, Katherine, it was my bill fold, and it had five hundred dollars in it!”
“Five hundred dollars!” echoed Katherine faintly.
Veronica ran back and forth along the walk, looking desperately into every crack and crevice. Every few minutes she held up her hand and looked at her wrist watch; then she would return to the search with more energy than before. Katherine also looked at her watch.
“I’ll help you hunt,” she said, taking the other side of the walk. “Are you sure you lost it along here?” she asked.
“Pretty sure,” answered Veronica. “I know I had it when I was back on Elm Street, because I looked to make sure.”
“The last time you saw it was back on Elm Street,” mused Katherine. “That’s two blocks behind us. We’ll have to go all the way back.”
“By the way,” said Katherine, a few minutes later, “it’s none of my business, I suppose, but what on earth were you doing with five hundred dollars in your bag?”
Veronica started and looked confused for a minute. But she answered naturally enough. “I drew it from the bank this afternoon to give my uncle to pay for some investment he is making for me, and I was to take it over to his studio, but I was detained and he had gone when I got there, so I was just bringing it home when I lost it.” She stared up the road with widening eyes, not toward Elm Street, where the purse might lie, but toward the big avenue in the other direction, where the streetcars clanged townward. Katherine stared thoughtfully at the suitcase Veronica had with her.
“Have you been away?” she asked casually.
“No,” said Veronica, with a start. Then, as her eyes followed Katherine’s, she added: “I’ve just been carrying some—things in there.”