Chapter Seventeen
At first Myrtle didn’t believe her eyes that the witchlike apparition that greeted her was the normally trim and elegant Althea. The hair that had always been neatly wound into a French twist lay in disarray on her shoulders in clumps. Bambi sat forlornly next to her, looking at his mistress with anxious eyes. Myrtle reached forward and held Althea by the arm. “What has happened, Althea? Something awful?”
She soon realized that something awful had happened.
Althea said vaguely. “I’m sorry I took so long. I couldn’t find the door.” She was dressed in a heavy flannel nightgown and thick robe and looked flushed.
Myrtle had the sudden sinking sensation that she knew the secret Althea desperately tried to hide over the past couple of weeks. She was in the early stages o
