She had caught sight
of Ellen Dix standing under the deep portico, the scared face of the
maid looking over her shoulder.
Ellen's face crimsoned slowly. All at once she felt unaccountably
sorry and ashamed. She wished she had not come. She felt that she
wanted nothing so much as to hurry swiftly away.
But Lydia Orr, still holding the strange old man by the arm, was
already coming up the steps.
"I'll not go in the automobile, child," he repeated, with an
obstinate flourish of his stick. "I don't like to ride so fast. I
want to see things. I want--"
He stopped short, his mouth gaping, his eyes staring at Ellen.
"That girl!" he almost shouted. "She told me--I don't want her
here.... Go away, girl, you make my head hurt!"
Lydia flashed a beseeching look at Ellen, as she led the old man
past.
"Please come in," she said; "I shall be at liberty in just a
moment.... Come, father!"
Ellen hesitated.
"Perhaps I'd better not, today," she murmured, and slowly descended
the steps.
The discreet maid closed the door behind her.
Chapter XVIII
Ellen did not at once return home. She walked on reflecting. So the
old man was Lydia Orr's father! And she was the first to know it!
The girl had never spoken of her father, Ellen was sure. Had she done
so, Mrs. Solomon Black would certainly have told Mrs. Whittle, and
Mrs. Whittle would have informed Mrs. Daggett, and thence, by way of
Mrs. Dodge and Fanny, the news would long ago have reached Ellen and
her mother.
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