The Girl Next Door by Augusta Huiell Seaman

Author:Augusta Huiell Seaman [Seaman, Augusta Huiell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Augusta Huiell Seaman was an American author of children's literature. Born and raised n New York City, she started writing after marrying Robert Seaman. Her most popular work includes The Girl Next Door (ISBN: 9781909676039).The Girl Next Door, Augusta Huiell Seaman, Children, friendship, mystery, adventure, relationship, tale, story, fun
Publisher: Sovereign
Published: 2020-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XIII

VIA WIRELESS

It was a week after the events of the last chapter. The girls had gone regularly every day to visit Cecily. It was Marcia who had finally mustered up courage to ask Miss Benedict if Cecily could not go into the garden and enjoy there some outdoor air and sunshine. Miss Benedict had hesitated at first, but at last she conceded that Cecily and the girls might sit in the garden if they would go out of the house by a small side door and remain on that side of the house.

They found that this door was on the opposite side of the house from Cecily’s room: consequently, they had never seen it. And they soon discovered one reason, at least, why Miss Benedict wished them to remain exclusively on that side. It was screened both back and front by thick bushes and trees. And at the side, above the garden wall, rose the high blank side of a building, unrelieved by a single window. Here they were as absolutely screened from public view as if they were within the house. Here also was an old rustic bench and table, and they spent several happy mornings in the secluded spot, sewing, reading, and chatting.

Cecily seemed fairly to open out before their eyes, like a flower-bud expanding in warm, sunny atmosphere. Only at times now did she show any trace of the frightened repression of their earlier acquaintance. They seldom talked abut the mystery surrounding her, because they had discovered that any allusion to it only made her uneasy, unhappy, and rather silent. Moreover, further discussion of it was rather useless, as they seemed to have reached a point in its solution beyond which progress was hopeless.

So they talked gaily about themselves and their own affairs, sometimes of their former home in Northam, the pleasant New England village. Occasionally Cecily would reciprocate by allowing them glimpses of her life in the obscure little English town from which she had come. Only rarely did she allude to the circumstances of her present home, and though the girls secretly ached to know more about it, they were too tactful to ask any questions.

One query, whose answer they could not guess was this: who was the other mysterious old lady, kept so closely a prisoner in her room by Miss Benedict? And why was she so kept? Marcia and Janet were never tired of discussing this question between themselves. That it was a relative, they could not doubt. And they recalled one or two remarks Miss Benedict had dropped, particularly when she had said: “We—that is—I have some means.”

The “we” must certainly have referred to herself and the other one. But could that “other one” be mother, sister, aunt, or cousin? And why was there so much secrecy about her? Cecily had only said that Miss Benedict referred to her as “the lady in there who is not very well.” But why conceal so carefully just an ordinary invalid?

“You never can tell,

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