Eileen made no reply.

CHAPTER XVI. Producing the Evidence

When Linda hurried home the next evening, her first word to Katy was to
ask if Eileen were there.

"No, she isn't here," said Katy, "and she's not going to be."

"Not going to be!" cried Linda, her face paling perceptibly.

"She went downtown this morning and she telephoned me about three
sayin' she had an invoitation to go with a motor party to Pasadena this
afternoon, an' she wasn't knowin' whether she could get home the night
or not."

"I don't like it," said Linda. "I don't like it at all."

She liked it still less when Eileen came home for a change of clothing
the following day, and again went to spend the night with a friend,
without leaving any word whatever.

"I don't understand this," said Linda, white lipped and tense. "She does
not want to see me. She does not intend to talk business with me if she
can possibly help it. She is treating me as if I were a four-year-old
instead of a woman with as much brain as she has. If she appears while
I am gone tomorrow and starts away again, you tell her Come to think of
it, you needn't tell her anything; I'll give you a note for her."

So Linda sat down and wrote:

DEAR EILEEN:

It won't be necessary to remind you of our agreement night before last
to settle on an allowance from Father's estate for me. Of course I
realize that you are purposely avoiding seeing me, for what reason I
can't imagine; but I give you warning, that if you have been in this
house and have read this note, and are not here with your figures ready
to meet me when I get home tomorrow night, I'll take matters into my own
hands, and do exactly what I think best without the slightest reference
to what you think about it. If you don't want something done that you
will dislike, even more than you dislike seeing me, you had better heed
this warning.

LINDA.

She read it over slowly: "My, that sounds melodramatic!" she commented.
"It's even got a threat in it, and it's a funny thing to threaten my own
sister. I don't think that it's a situation that occurs very frequently,
but for that matter I sincerely hope that Eileen isn't the kind of
sister that occurs frequently."

Linda went up to her room and tried to settle herself to work, but found
that it was impossible to fix her attention on what she was doing. Her
mind jumped from one thing to another in a way that totally prohibited
effective work of any kind. A sudden resolve