Friendship -- Juvenile fiction; Houseboats -- Juvenile fiction; Vacations -- Juvenile fiction; Young women -- Juvenile fiction
A few soldiers on leave of absence from their barracks passed her in
groups of twos and threes. But no one else appeared for several
minutes. Tom was taking some time with his telephoning.
Finally an old man and a young girl came down the street in Madge's
direction. The old man leaned heavily on the girl's arm. In the half
light she could see that they were talking very earnestly and not
looking about them. When they were close to her Madge Morton discovered
them to be Flora Harris and her grandfather, Admiral Gifford.
Madge turned away her head. She hoped that she would not be observed. A
few minutes before she had been so happy and so content. Why should the
first person she saw at Old Point Comfort be the only person in the
world who would take some of the pleasure away from her home-coming?
If only they would pass without seeing her! It was almost dark, and she
was not even supposed to be in the land of the living, so she sat
absolutely still, hardly daring to breathe.
Neither the old admiral, whose eyes were dimmed with age, nor his
grand-daughter, saw the little figure on the bench as they walked
toward it. They passed close by her. Some unseen force must have made
Flora Harris turn her head as she came directly opposite Madge.
Flora gave one terrified scream, then began shaking as though with a
chill.
"What is it, Flora?" her grandfather demanded. "Are you ill?"
Flora pointed a trembling finger at the other girl.
The old gentleman turned in confusion to glance at Madge. He saw only a
young girl sitting quietly on a bench. He could not connect her with
Flora's unexpected outcry. The admiral was not familiar with Madge's
appearance. He had seen her only a few times, and he had not remembered
her face.
Flora was now crying bitterly. She did not cease to stare at Madge, yet
she did not speak.
The little captain sprang to her feet. "Don't be frightened, Miss
Harris," she said quietly. "I am sorry I startled you. I hope you don't
take me for a ghost. We have been shipwrecked for several weeks and
only got in this afternoon----"
"Then I haven't murdered you!" Flora sobbed, running forward and
flinging her arms about the other girl's neck. "I know that I am
hateful and snobbish, and that I like to make other people
uncomfortable, but I didn't mean any real harm to come to the houseboat
when I asked Alfred Thornton to cut her loose from her moorings. I just
wanted you not to come back here again. And I have not let Alfred
Thornton confess that he cut your boat away from the anchor, because I
was afraid we would both be put in jail."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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