CHAPTER XIX
AN UNEXPECTED MEETING
"That's twice you've made a wrong play, Betty," observed Mr.Littell. "What lies heavy on your mind this evening?"
Betty blushed, and attempted to put her mind more on the game. Shewas playing checkers with Mr. Littell, whose injured foot still kepthim a prisoner most of the time, and she had played badly all theevening, she knew. Truth to tell, she was thinking about her uncleand wondering over and over why she did not hear from him.
After the rubber was played and the other girls who had been aroundthe piano, singing, had gone out to get something to eat, for themaids had the evening off, Betty spoke to her host.
"I suppose you think I'm foolish," she ventured; "but I am reallyworried about Uncle Dick now. He has never answered the telegram andthe two letters I've written. His Philadelphia lawyer writes that heis waiting to hear from him. He seems to have dropped out of theworld. Do you think he may be sick in some hospital and not able tocommunicate with us?"
"That's a possibility," admitted Mr. Littell soberly. "But I tellyou honestly, Betty, and not simply to relieve your mind, that Iconsider it a very remote one. Business men, especially men whotravel a great deal, as you tell me your uncle does, seldom arewithout somewhere on their person, their names and addresses, anddirections about what is to be done in case of sickness or accident.I never travel without such a card. Ten to one, if your uncle wereill or injured, his lawyer would have been notified immediately."
A weight of anxiety slipped from Betty's heart, for she immediatelyrecognized the sound common sense in this argument. Still, somethingelse was troubling her.
"Don't you think," she began again bravely, "that I had better go toPineville? The quarantine is lifted, I hear, and the Bensingers willtake me in till I can hear from Uncle Dick. You and Mrs. Littell andthe girls have been so lovely to me, but--but--" her voice trailed off.
Mr. Littell leaned back in his chair and lit a fresh cigar.
"Well, now of course," he said slowly, "if you feel that you want togo to Pineville, we really have no right to say anything. But if Iwere you, I'd stay right here. Your uncle may be intending to comeback to Washington. In any case, he will address his letter to youhere. Of that much we are certain. You'll hear more quickly if youdon't move about. Besides, there is that Henderson lad. I'm countingon making his acquaintance. He's likely to bob up any day--though Ididn't mean to pun. If you want my advice, Betty, it is to stay herequietly with us and wait as patiently as you can. We like to haveyou, you know that. You're not a stranger, but a friend."
He went on to explain to her in his quiet, even, matter-of-fact way,that to the disturbed girl was inexpressibly soothing, his beliefthat her uncle was on an exploration trip for oil and might easilyfind a month's accumulation of mail awaiting him on his return.
"It's only here, in the heart of civilization, that we think wecan't live without four mails a day," Mr. Littell concluded. "I'vebeen out of touch with a post-office for three weeks at a timemyself, and our sailors, you know, often go much longer withoutletters."
On one particularly lovely morning the four girls, with Mrs.Littell, started off on the pleasant mission of seeing the WhiteHouse. Betty's and Libbie's acquaintance with it was confined solelyto the glimpses they had had from the street, but Louise and Bobbyhad attended several New Year's receptions and had shaken hands withthe President.
The party spent a delightful morning, visiting the famous East Room,admiring the full length portraits of George and Martha Washington,about which latter the story is told that Mrs. Dolly Madison cut itfrom its frame to save it from the approaching enemy in 1814. Theywere also fortunate to find a custodian taking sightseers through theother official apartments so that they saw more than the casualvisitor does in one visit. They visited in turn, the Green Room, theRed Room, and the Blue Room, saw the state dining-room with itsmagnificent shining table about which it was easy to imagine famousguests seated, and enjoyed a peep into the conservatory at the end ofthe corridor. They did not go up to the executive offices on thesecond floor, knowing that probably a crowd was before them and thatan opportunity to see the President on the streets of the city waslikely to present itself.
"Well, I shouldn't want to live there," sighed Betty, as they camedown the steps, "It is very grand and very stately, but not much likea home. I suppose, though, the private rooms of the President and hisfamily are cozy, if one could see them."
"Beyond a doubt," agreed Mrs. Littell.
They lunched at one of the large hotels, and afterward Mrs. Littellhad a club engagement. The girls, she announced, might spend theafternoon as they chose, and she would pick them all up at fiveo'clock with Carter and the car.
"Esther and I want to see 'The Heart of June,'" announced Libbie,who found romance enough to satisfy her in the motion-pictures.
Louise was interested, too; but Betty had promised to take somepapers for Mr. Littell and see that they reached an architect in oneof the nearby office buildings. Bobby elected to go with her, andthey decided that, that errand accomplished, they might do a littleshopping and meet the others at the theater door at five o'clock.
"Mr. Waters won't be in till three o'clock," announced the freckle-facedoffice boy who met them in the outer office of the architect's suite.
"Then we'll have to come back," decided Betty, glancing at herwatch. "It is just two now."
"You can leave anything with me," said the boy politely. "I'll seethat he gets it as soon as he comes in."
"Yes, do, Betty," urged Bobby. "Dad would say it was all right toleave that envelope of papers. They're not terribly important."
"We can do our shopping and then come back," insisted Betty, to theevident disgust of Bobby and the hardly less concealed impatience ofthe office boy.
"Why wouldn't you leave 'em?" demanded Bobby, when they were oncemore in the street.
"Dad hasn't any secret service stuff, I'm sure of that. Now we haveto come all the way back here again, and that means hurrying throughour shopping."
"You needn't come," said Betty mildly. "Your father asked me to givethose papers personally to Mr. Waters. He didn't say they wereimportant; I don't know that they are. But if I say I am going togive an envelope personally to any one, I don't intend to give thatenvelope to a third person if there's nothing in it more valuablethan--hair nets!"
The window they were passing suggested the comparison, and Bobbylaughed good-naturedly and forebore to argue further. Promptly atthree o'clock she and Betty entered the elevator in the officebuilding and were whirled up to the fifth floor to find Mr. Waters inhis private office.
"Mr. Littell telephoned half an hour ago," he told them, taking theenvelope and running over the papers with a practised eye as hetalked. "He hoped to catch you before you left here. I believe hewants to speak to his daughter. There's a booth right there, MissBobby."
Bobby had a brief conversation with her father and came out in a fewminutes in evident haste.
"He wants us to do a couple more errands, Betty," she announced."We'll have to hurry, for it's after three."
The architect had written a receipt for the papers, and Bobby nowhurried Betty off, explaining as they went that they must take a carto Octagon House.
Octagon House proved to be the headquarters for the AmericanInstitute of Architects, and Bobby's errand had to do with one of theoffices. Betty admired the fine woodwork and the handsome design ofthe house while waiting for her companion, and in less than fifteenminutes they were back on the street car bound for "the tallestoffice building in Washington," as Bobby described it.
"Dad wants an architectural magazine that's out of print, and hethinks I can get it there," she said. "Afterward, if we have time,we'll go to the top of the building. The root is arranged so that youcan step out, and they say the view is really splendid. Not soextensive as from the Monument, of course, but not so reduced,either. I've always wanted to get up on the roof and see what I couldsee."
Finding the office her
father had specified did not prove as easy atask as Bobby had anticipated, and she said frankly that if she hadbeen alone she would have given up and taken another day for thesearch.
"But if you can keep a promise down to the last dot of the lastletter, far be it from me to fall short," she remarked. "Oh, Betty,do you see any office that looks like Sherwood and David on thisboard?"
At last they found it under another name, which, as Bobby rathertactlessly told the elevator boy, was not her idea of efficiency. Thecopy of the magazine Mr. Littell especially wanted was wrapped up andplaced safely in Bobby's hands.
"And now," declared that young person gaily, "as the reward ofvirtue, let's go up on the roof. It is after four, but we'll havetime if we don't dawdle. We can get from here to the theater infifteen minutes."
They started for the elevator, and as a car came up and the gatesopened a boy got off. He would have brushed by without looking up,but Betty saw him at once.
"Bob!" she cried in amazement "Why, Bob Henderson!"