nd pin; it must be quite new. I was so excited
about my own costume that night, I forget about any ornaments you wore.
Perhaps you could buy another one some time. I have some money, five
dollars, and I'll give it to you; I'll take it out of my bank when we
go home; that would help."

"Oh, Molly, how good you are!" Mary turned over to put her arm around
her cousin. "I have a pound, too, and that might be half enough, or
nearly half, but I am afraid it would be a long time before we could
get the rest."

"Well, I wouldn't be scared of Aunt Ada, Mary," Molly said. "She is a
dear, and she'll be very sorry, but she will know it was not your fault
that you lost it."

"Miss Sharp would say it was my carelessness, and she would be so very
vexed."

"Then she's a mean old thing, and not a bit like dear Aunt Ada. Do
tell her, Mary."

"Oh, I can't, I can't," persisted Mary, terror again seizing her, "I am
so afraid she will be vexed."

"Then let me tell."

"Oh, no, please. Wait a little longer. Perhaps the broach can be
found. Oh, I am so miserable; Aunt Ada will think I am so careless and
deceitful, and everything bad."

Molly now felt only a deep pity for the poor little sinner, and she
began to kiss away the tears on Mary's cheeks. "Please don't be
miserable," she begged. "I think maybe you ought to have told at
first, but I see how you felt, and I'll not be horrid to you any more,
Mary. I'll stand up for you straight along, and when you want Aunt Ada
to know I will go with you to tell her."

Mary really began to feel comforted. "I think you are a perfect duck,
Molly," she said. "Fancy after all I have been doing, for you to be so
kind. But please don't tell Polly; I know she doesn't like me."

"She did like you," said Molly truthfully, "until--until we heard that
you had not been where Aunt Ada thought you were."

"And she thinks I am deceitful; so I have been, and I hate myself for
it."

"But Polly doesn't know why you did it."

"Then don't tell her; I'd rather anything than that."

"Don't you want Polly to like you?"

"Yes, but I don't want her to know I lost the brooch."

It was useless to try to rid poor Mary's mind of the one idea, and at
last Molly gave up trying, but she did not leave her forlorn little
cousin, and Polly, in the next room while she wondered what could be
keeping Molly, fell asleep in the midst of her wondering.

_CHAPTER VII_

_In Elton Woods_

Polly was a