Dorothy Dainty at the Mountains Part 23

"Well,--perhaps I wouldn't," she said. "Why, what are you taking?"

"Pills," said Arabella, counting out six very pink pills from a little bottle, and taking them, then making a horrid face.

"You don't look sick," said Floretta, "but you're taking medicine."

"Aunt Matilda says these are for my color," was the answer.

"You haven't any; you're pale as a sheet," said Floretta.

"That's why I take them," said Arabella, "and look! I've got some green ones I take," and six green pills followed the pink ones.

"Why, what are those for?" gasped Floretta. "Ought you to take two kinds at the same time?"

Arabella, determined to startle her new acquaintance, took a third bottle from her pocket, and swallowed three very large white pills.

She was delighted with the effect that she had produced.

Floretta sprang to her feet, and tried to s.n.a.t.c.h the bottle, but Arabella had put it in her pocket, and was holding the pocket together.

She narrowed her shrewd little eyes, and smiled broadly.

"Guess you couldn't take all that, and not feel queer!" she said.

"I wouldn't wonder if you felt funny. _Do_ you?" asked Floretta.

"Not _yet_," said Arabella.

Floretta was getting tired of her caller. She hoped that she hadn't any more kinds of medicine that she could take.

She wished that Dorothy would return and amuse Arabella.

She would have run away from any one else, and rudely left her alone, but there was something so strange about this child that she feared her.

She had a nervous feeling that if she turned to leave her, Arabella might s.n.a.t.c.h at her, and draw her back. She certainly did look odd.

There was something catlike in the way in which she kept her eyes riveted upon Floretta.

She looked as if, at any moment, she might spring at her!

She was not thinking of doing anything of the sort, however.

The truth was that she _did_ feel just a bit queer.

Was it the three kinds of pills? She could not tell, but she began to feel as if she would be glad if she were at home.

"I guess I'll go now," she said. "I think it must be time."

"What time did your Aunt Matilda tell you to come home?" Floretta asked.

"She said I could stay to dinner if Dorothy asked me, but she doesn't come home, so I guess I won't wait."

"Go to dinner at the Cleverton in that plaid gingham!" thought Floretta, for she had seen the plain little frock beneath the raincoat.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SHE OFFERED TWO CARDS TO FLORETTA.--_Page 210._]

Arabella grasped her big umbrella firmly, and turned, as she went down the steps, to say:

"You may tell Dorothy Dainty that _Miss_ Corryville called."

Floretta giggled.

"And you might tell your Aunt Matilda that you talked with _Miss_ Paxton," she said.

"I will," said Arabella, without a sign of a smile.

"I wonder you don't leave cards," said Floretta, and to her surprise, the queer child put her hand in the pocket of her raincoat, and, without looking at them, offered two cards to Floretta, saying:

"There they are."

Then, without looking back, she marched resolutely down the road. She did not thank Floretta for talking with her while she rested, nor did she say "good-by."

For some moments Floretta stood watching the odd little figure as it tramped down the road, the umbrella, like a huge walking stick, thumping the gravel at every step. She thought Arabella would turn around, but she did not.

One might have thought that she had already forgotten the child with whom she had been talking. When, at last, she disappeared behind a clump of trees that hid the curve of the road, Floretta looked at the two cards in her hand, stared at them in amazement, and then laughed, laughed until her eyes were full of tears.

Who could have helped laughing? One card bore these lines:

JAMES HORTON WORTH, PAINLESS DENTISTRY, 10 TREVOR STREET, MERRIVALE.

While the other, equally interesting, bore this statement:

ALTON JUSTUS MEER, JEWELLER, 90 RUPERT ROAD, MERRIVALE.

"How perfectly funny," cried Floretta. "I'll run up and show them to mamma, and then I'll wait here to give them to Dorothy and Nancy when they come. I wonder if they'll have any choice?"

Dorothy and Nancy felt, as did the older members of the party, that the ride had been the most delightful of any that they had enjoyed since their arrival.

The horses were tossing their manes, and Romeo, as if in imitation, tossed his so that it showed all its silken beauty.

"See him!" cried Dorothy. "He thinks he's as fine as any horse."

"Well, he is as dear as they," said Nancy.

"Oh, yes," said Dorothy, "and dearer."

And when the horses and the pony had been led around to the stable, and the older members of the party had reached the piazza, Dorothy and Nancy, who had paused for a moment to talk, ran up the steps, intending to sit together in a large rocker.

Before they reached the chair, Floretta flew toward them.