By the Way of the Silverthorns (Musaicum Romance Classics). Grace Livingston Hill

      CHAPTER III

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      But Rae Silverthorn did not need the assistance of a maid to help her dress for she was already attired.

      Thelma met her at the door, and she handed her her suitcase and the hat and wrap she had been wearing.

      “Please take them up to my room, will you, Thelma? I can go right in. I’m all ready. Does my hair look all right?”

      “Just lovely, Miss Rae,” said Thelma happily. “And you needn’t to worry about that Minnie girl. She’s gone!”

      “Gone?” said Rae with startled eyes.

      “They sent her away to some friend’s house. And Mrs. Hollis says ye’re to keep the room you had. My, but you look nice, Miss Rae! That’s a pretty dress! Now you can go in and dinner will be announced at once.”

      They greeted her with joy as she entered the room where they were all laughing and talking. There was great relief on the faces of the hostess and the bride. Then almost at once they went in to the table.

      Lincoln Silverthorn watched his pretty sister with satisfaction in his eyes. He knew he had been extravagant with regard to that dress, but he was glad he had done it. Of course it had set him back a little in his intentions about that new car which he had all but persuaded himself he was going to buy, but it was worth it. Rae was young and needed pretty things. Of course she wasn’t a girl who spent her time running around to parties, but on the few occasions when she did go it was right that she should look her best. It was due their family that she should, and he was proud that he had been able to provide this successful dress for her tonight. He watched her with contented eyes. He was pleased to see that the fellows were all admiring her. They should. She was the grandest kind of a girl. He was her brother and he knew. He didn’t know any girl who was at all her equal, unless perhaps it was Carey Carewe, and he wasn’t sure about her.

      As they arranged themselves about the table looking for their place cards he saw that Carey was almost beside Rae. She seemed to admire Rae, and Rae had said she liked Carey. That was another point in Carey’s favor.

      Carey had red-gold hair and a dress like the green in a sea wave. Her eyes too were sea green. Then he looked back to his sister. Would her dress have been better some other color? No, for that dark blue brought out the pink tints in Rae’s cheeks. Her face stood out in the dark setting like a lovely flower, and she was tall and slender like a willow wand, graceful as a feather in the long slim skirt! Then he snapped his mind back to the practical. Such thoughts as these were sentimental froth. But it was his first venture into the world of fashion, so perhaps he could be pardoned for being pleased that it had been successful.

      The table was as lovely as a table Mrs. Hollis had planned was expected to be, and the little gasp of appreciation that went round the room fully repaid her for all her care and thought. A sudden memory of the way she had just expelled that impudent girl so summarily from the house filled her with satisfaction, touched just the least bit with compunction that any girl had to be shut out from this happy time, when she wanted so much to be a part of it. But it was her own fault of course. If she hadn’t been so selfish and disagreeable, and almost uncannily cunning in inventing effective ways to make other people uncomfortable, she might have been welcomed wherever she went. But the fact remained that she was most unpopular, a perfect killjoy wherever she chanced to be, and it was therefore a great relief to be rid of this unexpected trouble so easily

      Then she turned her attention to the lovely table, and the bright faces around it. Her own dear girl, Sydney, with her handsome bridegroom seated in the center facing her. She smiled a loving look toward her, resolutely putting away the thought of how soon she was to be separated from them.

      The merry company had finished the fruit course and progressed to the delicious soup, when suddenly the doorbell bimmed out in a series of successive and frantic rings, as if the bell had gone mad and couldn’t stop.

      The guests were laughing and talking and at first didn’t notice it, but Mrs. Hollis looked with a startled glance out into the hall. Thelma, who knew the butler was busy serving, hurried from the back hall toward the front door. But the bell went right on insistently ringing with all its might. Suddenly the guests became aware of it and ceased their chatter and laughter, looking up wonderingly, pausing with spoons halfway to their lips. And the bell went right on ringing.

      Then the front door opened rather frantically and the bell stopped ringing, though its echoes still lingered hovering in the air, as if the sound had gathered such momentum that it could not quickly be suppressed.

      Heavy young footsteps came swiftly toward the dining room in spite of Thelma’s attempted interference, and a wild young voice burst in upon the bright scene.

      It was Minnie! Her hat awry, her coat wide open and half trailing behind her, real tears making little rivulets down the powder on her cheeks, lipstick all over her delicate handkerchief, her smeary lips quivering wide like a frightened child’s.

      She stayed not on the order of her going. She came straight to the dining room table and stood there looking at Mrs. Hollis wildly, and as Luther Waite expressed it afterwards, she “turned on the works and began to bawl right off the bat!”

      “Oh, Aunt Jessica!” she gasped. “I’ve had such a frightful experience! I thought I should die before I ever got back here!”

      She punctuated her sentences by ducking her face into her handkerchief to dash away the tears.

      “There was nobody home! Can you imagine it? The house was absolutely dark! Not even a light in the hall as people usually arrange it. And there was somebody evidently breaking into the house. Someone with a flashlight going around inside, a little dot of light appearing, wavering across an inner wall, and then appearing somewhere else. It was weird! I couldn’t understand it, and I was scared to death but I didn’t know what to do. The taxi man said he couldn’t wait. He had to get back for another call. So I got out and went up the steps. But just as I was reaching out to push the bell, a hand came out of the darkness and gripped me by the wrist, and tried to draw me into the dark vestibule. The man had a mask over the lower part of his face, and a gun in his hand! I began to scream with all my might, and jerk away from him, and I guess I frightened him, for his hold relaxed a little and I jerked my hand away so hard I fell backwards down the four steps to the sidewalk and rolled over into the shadow, and the man backed into the vestibule and I heard the door slam. By that time the taxi was goon and as soon as I could I got up and began to run. I ran as hard as I could, and I thought I never would get here. I’m so frightened I don’t know what to do. Oh, Aunt Jessica, please, please don’t send me away again! I’ll stay anywhere. I can sit right down here at the corner of the table. I won’t take up much room! You’ll let me bring up a chair here beside you, won’t you?” and she lifted a tearful appealing face toward Lincoln Silverthorn who was sitting at one corner of the table.

      Link with a sternly severe face was on his feet at once, drawing out his chair for her.

      “Just take my place,” he said courteously, stepping back to the edge of the doorway into the wide hall.

      “Oh! Thanks awfully!” said Minnie with a quick shift to a giggle. “I was sure there would be one gentleman among you!”

      “Oh, really, Minnie!” said Mrs. Hollis in what was mean to be a low annoyed tone of reprimand, though it didn’t register with Minnie. Her tears were forgotten, and she was seraphically happy now, sitting down serenely in Link’s chair and gazing up at him like a queen thanking a lowly subject.

      Mrs. Hollis with darkened countenance half rose from her seat, hesitantly, not knowing just what to do with this unparalleled situation. Bur Mr. Hollis looked at his aspiring relative with disgust.

      “Nonsense, Minnie!” he exclaimed as he rose precipitately from his seat, laying a detaining hand on his wife’s arm.

      “Sit down, Jessica, I’ll handle this!” he said in a low