"I wish," said Phoebe, putting her two hands on Miss Georgie's shoulders at the gate and looking up at her with haggard eyes, "you'd see what you can do with Vadnie. The poor child's near crazy; she ain't used to seeing such things happen--"
"Where is she?" Good Indian asked tersely, and was answered immediately by the sound of sobbing on the east porch. The three went together, but it was Grant who reached her first.
"Don't cry, Goldilocks," he said tenderly, bending over her. "It's all right now. There isn't going to be any more--"
"Oh! Don't TOUCH me!" She sprang up and backed from him, horror plain in her wide eyes. "Make him keep away, Aunt Phoebe!"
Good Indian straightened, and stood perfectly still, looking at her in a stunned, incredulous way.
"Chicken, don't be silly!" Miss Georgie's sane tones were like a breath of clean air. "You've simply gone all to pieces. I know what nerves can do to a woman--I've had 'em myself. Grant isn't going to bite you, and you're not afraid of him. You're proud of him, and you know it. He's acted the man, chicken!--the man we knew he was, all along. So pull yourself together, and let's not have any nonsense."
"He--KILLED a man! I saw him do it. And he's going to kill some more. I might have known he was like that! I might have KNOWN when he tried to shoot me that night in the orchard when I was trying to scare Gene! I can show you the mark--where he grazed my arm! And he LAUGHED about it! I called him a savage then--and I was RIGHT--only he can be so nice when he wants to be--and I forgot about the Indian in him--and then he killed Mr. Baumberger! He's lying out there now! I'd rather DIE than let him--"
Miss Georgie clapped a hand over her mouth, and stopped her. Also, she gripped her by the shoulder indignantly.
"'Vadna Ramsey, I'm ashamed of you!" she cried furiously. "For Heaven's sake, Grant, go on off somewhere and wait till she settles down. Don't stand there looking like a stone image--didn't you ever see a case of nerves before? She doesn't know what she's saying--if she did, she wouldn't be saying it. You go on, and let me handle her alone. Men are just a nuisance in a case like this."
She pushed Evadna before her into the kitchen, waited until Phoebe had followed, and then closed the door gently and decisively upon Grant. But not before she had given him a heartening smile just to prove that he must not take Evadna seriously, because she did not.