So as Nan was in everybody's thoughts during this time no one happened
to glance toward Polly O'Neill or, seeing her, to observe anything
unusual in her manner or appearance, for Polly also neither moved nor
spoke during Edith's recital, although her face turned suddenly white.
Fifty dollars in an envelope, the money in bank notes and the envelope
crumpled up and thrown away near their tent! Her discovery in the woods
that day had been just this and she herself had thrown away that same
envelope. Betty of course had lost the enclosure out of her letter in
bringing it home from the post office and, hiding the letter away
afterwards, believed the money still there.
Why did not Polly get up and make this announcement at once? It would
have been very simple except for one thing, she had spent the money, and
in the first moment of surprised horror had no idea how she would ever
be able to return it.
Like a good many impetuous people Polly O'Neill sometimes had the
misfortune to do her thinking when it was too late. Finding the money
in the woods, when she felt she needed it so much, had seemed to her
like a miracle, so that it never occurred to her, either that afternoon
or evening, that she should have tried to find out to whom the money
rightfully belonged before using it, although she had been thinking of
little else since then.
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