ty for her confession! Why did
she so dread to tell Dorothy what her own five dollars had gone for? Nat
said it would positively leak out some day. Yet he promised not to tell.

"Do you want me to go with you to see Miss Brooks?" asked Dorothy
suddenly.

"Why," stammered Tavia, "I don't know that I will go at all. Such a
wild-goose chase! I am really not so curious as some might think me. I can
overcome a desire for further knowledge of that peaked little thing. In
fact, she makes me--creepy."

"Just as you like, of course," replied Dorothy, her manner somewhat
strained. "I only thought you might not like to go alone."

But Tavia had made up her mind to precisely that thing.

"I must sew the ribbons on Aunt Winnie's bag," went on Dorothy pleasantly
after a pause. "Don't you think it pretty?" and she displayed a small bag
made of white oiled silk and fitted up with all the little pockets needed
in traveling. One for the wet sponge, another for the toothbrush, then a
place for soap; in fact, a place for everything necessary in the emergency
of traveling.

"It is dear," agreed Tavia, looking the prospective gift over carefully.
"I don't see how you have patience to do such fine work."

"Oh, that is not fine," replied Dorothy. "See my lace pieces. They are
what I call fine."

"Oh, they are simply beyond my understanding altogether. Like geometry,
you know. But I forgot to ask Nat something. I wonder if he has gone up to
his room yet?" and Tavia rose to ascertain.

"It's nearly ten," Dorothy told her, "and he usually retires before ten
o'clock."

"Well, I'll just run down to the library and find out. I may forget it by
morning."

Dorothy could not help thinking that so urgent a matter as one which
required that attention would scarcely be so easily forgotten, but when
Tavia left the room she put her little gifts away and soon forgot all
about Tavia's sudden determination to seek Nat. Dorothy had so many other
more interesting things to dwell upon.

"But I do hope she will not sit up late," came the thought, when some time
after Tavia's exit Dorothy remembered that no sound had since indicated
that her chum had come toward the room. "Aunt Winnie does not like these
little late conferences."

Then she turned off her light and continued to listen for Tavia's
footstep.

Meanwhile, Tavia was talking very seriously to Nat. She had told him about
Dorothy's message from the strange woman, and he had suggested that