too pretty to
throw away, and cunning little motifs which had the magic quality of
disguising deficiencies and making both ends meet. Claire gave with a
lavish hand, and Cecil's gratitude was pathetic in its intensity. More
and more as the weeks passed on did she become obsessed with the craze
for decking herself in fine garments; new gloves, shoes, and veils were
purchased to supplement the home-made garments, and one memorable night
there arrived a large dress-box containing an evening dress and cloak.

"I have been out so little these last years. I have no clothes to
wear," Cecil said in explanation. "It's not fair to--er--people, when
they take you about, to look as if you had come out of the Ark... And
these ready-made things are _so_ cheap!"

She spoke with an air of excusing herself, and with a flush of
embarrassment on her cheeks, and Claire hastened to sympathise and
agree. She wondered if the embarrassment arose from the fact that for
the last two weeks Cecil had not paid her share of the joint expenses!
The omission had happened naturally enough, for on each occasion when
the landlady appeared with the bill, Cecil had been absent on one of her
now frequent excursions, when it had seemed the simplest thing to settle
in full, and await repayment next day.

Repayment, however, had not come. Half a dozen times over Cecil had
exclaimed, "Oh, dear, there's that money. I _must_ remember!" but
apparently she never had remembered at a moment when her purse was at
hand.

Claire was honestly indifferent. The hundred pounds which she had
deposited in a bank was considerably diminished, since it had been drawn
on for all her needs, but the term's salary would be paid in a short
time, and the thought of that, added to the remainder, gave her a
pleasant feeling of ease. It was only when for the third Saturday Cecil
hurried off with an air of fluster and embarrassment, that an unpleasant
suspicion arose. The weekly bill was again due, and Cecil had not
forgotten, she was only elaborately pretending to forget! Claire was
not angry, she was perfectly willing to play the part of banker until
the end of the term, but she hated the thought that Cecil was acting a
part, and deliberately trying to deceive. What if she had been
extravagant in her expenditure on clothes and had run herself short for
necessary expenses, there was nothing criminal in that! Foolish it
might be, but a fellow-girl would understand that,