After dinner they strolled into the hall of the hotel, which served as a sort of lobby, where they hoped to find letters awaiting them from the evening mail. The girl followed them timidly.
"I hope I'm not in the way or presuming too much," she said to Miss Campbell, as they proceeded into the hotel parlor to wait for the mail stage.
"Not at all, my dear," answered the kind soul. "If it is any pleasure to you, I'm sure it is a great pleasure to us. Are you alone?"
"You are taking a riding trip?" Miss Campbell looked at the riding suit.
"Don't you think it just a little bit of a risk, my dear?"
"It's not a pleasure trip. I--I'm looking for a place to live."
The girl hung her head. The Motor Maids were quite breathless with interest.
"My dear child," continued Miss Campbell, kindly, taking the young girl's hand, "it's none of my business, but I am an old woman, and I feel I must give advice to a beautiful young girl. Let me beg of you to think a long time before you do anything rash. Girls leave home thinking life will be easy and it so often turns out to be very, very hard."
"But I've been very unhappy," whispered the girl choking. "You can't understand--you can't know----"
Two tears welled in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks, the sight of which was beyond the endurance of the Motor Maids. They gathered around her in a solicitous little group. They took her hands and pressed against her and patted her on the shoulder. And Miss Campbell kept saying:
"There, there, my dear, you mustn't cry. I am afraid I hurt you."
While the girl was choking back her tears and at the same time endeavoring to tell them in a broken voice that things at home had been unbearable, Billie and Elinor, who were facing the entrance, saw a very tall, black figure darken the doorway. Only for a moment he stood there, a great square shouldered, ungainly man who gave the impression of having been carved out of a block of wood, from the straight folds of his black Prince Albert coat to his square cut iron gray beard, which had once been black. The only live thing about him appeared to be his fiery dark eyes, which now took them all in with one sweeping, comprehensive glance.
The two girls almost shuddered and felt a certain relief when he promptly withdrew from the door.