Phyllis | Page 4

for the Palefaces and
which he always whistles when he wants to signal something to one of
the girls. Then suddenly they all saw me, and that politely enduring
look came over all three faces at once, though Mamie Sue's face is so
jolly and round by nature that it is very hard to prim it down suddenly,
and I don't believe she would always trouble to put it on for me, only
Belle seems to demand it of her as an echo of her sentiments toward me.
Some people can't seem to be sure of themselves unless they can get
somebody else to echo them and I think that is why Belle has to keep
poor Mamie Sue at her elbow all the time.
But when I saw the politeness plaster spread itself over all their faces at
the sight of me enjoying myself like any other girl, I just turned away
wearily and started back along my own garden path, back to my own
house which I felt that I ought not to be living in. But something sweet
happened to me before I left that makes me feel nice and warm even

now to think about.
"Please don't go away, Phyllis," said Roxanne, looking right into my
face with such a lovely look in her own eyes that it was almost
impossible, for an instant, for me to believe it was charity.
For a moment I wanted to stay, and almost did; but if she could be
generous, so could I, and I didn't intend to spoil their fun for even a
minute, so I just smiled at her and bowed to them as I walked away.
Nobody knows how it does hurt me to be this kind of an outcast! I have
lived fifteen years with a sick mother, and a governess and trained
nurses, and never a chance of having friends; and now that one is just at
my back door I can't have her because useless wealth is between us. Is
there no way the rich can turn poor without disgrace? But I've got that
smile from Roxanne and I'm going to believe it was meant for the real
me. Good-night!
* * * * *
I'm so full of happiness and scare and a secret that if I didn't have this
little book to spill some of it out to I don't know what I would do. A
secret sometimes makes a girl feel like she would explode worse than a
bottle of nitroglycerin, though it makes me nervous even to write the
word when I think of what might have happened to Lovelace Peyton if
I hadn't had a father who is cool enough to keep his head at all times
and handed that quality down to me.
Tony Luttrell is the leader of the Raccoon Patrol of the Boy Scouts, and
he has a star for pulling Pink Chadwell out of the swimming-pool one
day last summer when Pink had eaten too many green apples and the
cold water gave him cramps. Tony had to hit him on the head to keep
them both from being drowned. It was a grand thing for him to do, and
everybody in this town looks up to Tony as a hero. Roxanne says the
thing that hurts her most is that she can't tell all the boys and girls how
brave I am because of the secret which I had to find out when I saved
the life of Lovelace Peyton.

"Oh, Phyllis, to think they can't all know what a noble girl you are to
risk your life, when you knew it, to get Lovey out for me," Roxanne
said, after we had locked things up and got Lovelace to promise never
to go near that window again and were sitting on the little back porch
of the cottage trembling with fear and being very happy together.
"I don't care what they think about me, Roxanne, just so you will be my
friend sometimes in private when the others are not around," I said, in a
voice that wanted to tremble, but I wouldn't let it.
"Do you think I would do a thing like that, Phyllis--be a girl's friend in
private?" Roxanne asked, and her head went up into a stiff-necked pose
like that portrait of her great-grandmother Byrd that looks so haughtily
out of place hanging over the fireplace in the living hall in the little old
cottage, in spite of the room full of old mahogany furniture and silver
candlesticks brought from Byrd Mansion to keep her company. "I'm
going to be your friend all the time, and it is none of the others'
business. I have always wanted to be, but you were so stiff with me;
and Belle said she