Part 23 (1/2)
”We shall love you just the same!” cried impulsive Alice.
”Don't be too sure. But I feel that I must tell some one. I have borne all I can alone. It is getting to the point where I fear I shall scream my secret to the cameras--or some one!”
Then Estelle had a secret!
”Do tell us. Perhaps we can help you--or perhaps my father can,”
suggested Ruth.
”I don't believe any one can help me,” said Estelle. ”But at least it will be a relief to tell it. I--I am living under false pretenses!” she blurted out desperately.
”False pretenses!” repeated Alice. At once her mind flashed back to Miss Dixon's ring. Was it the taking of this that Estelle was hinting at? The girl must have guessed what was in the mind of her hearers, for she hastened to add:
”Oh, it isn't anything disgraceful. It's just a misfortune. You remember you have been asking me where I learned to ride--whether I didn't use to live on a ranch--questions like that. Well, you must have noticed that I didn't answer.”
”Yes, we did notice, and we spoke about it,” said truthful Ruth.
”We thought you didn't wish to tell,” added Alice.
”Wish to tell! Oh, my dears, I would have been only too glad to tell if I could.”
”Why can't you?” asked Ruth. ”Are you bound by some vow of secrecy? Is it dangerous for you to reveal the past?”
”No, it is simply impossible!”
”Impossible!” the two sisters exclaimed.
”Yes, I can no more tell you what life I lived, where I lived, who I was, or what I was doing, up to a time of about three or four years ago, than I can fly.”
”Why not?” asked Alice, puzzled.
”Because the past--up to the time I named--is a perfect blank to me. My mind refuses absolutely to tell me who I was or where I lived--who my people were--anything of the past. My mind is like a blank sheet of paper. I can remember nothing. Oh, isn't it awful!” and she burst into tears.
CHAPTER XVIII
”WHAT CAN WE DO?”
”You poor dear!” cried Alice, and she knelt down on the floor beside Estelle and put her arms about the weeping girl. Ruth, too, with an expression of sympathy, stroked the bowed head.
”We want so much to help you,” Ruth murmured.
”Let me get you something,” begged Alice. ”Some smelling salts--some ammonia--shall I call any one--the doctor----?”
”No, I--I'll be all right presently,” said Estelle in a broken voice.
”Just let me alone a little while--I mean stay with me--talk to me--tell me something. I want to get control of my nerves.”
Ruth did not seem to know what to say, but Alice pulled a small bottle from her pocket, and held it under Estelle's nose.