hat her hair would
grow, you know. See!" She untied the strings and took off Honey-Sweet's
cap. Instead of a bald head with a few painted ringlets, there were wavy
golden locks of real hair. It is no use to try to express Anne's
delight. She couldn't do it herself. She laughed and cried and hugged
first Honey-Sweet, then Mrs. Patterson, then both together.

A soft wet snow was falling, and amid its whiteness and the glittering
lights and the merry bustle of the holiday crowds, the carriage turned
homeward. After such a happy day, nothing could ever be so bad again, it
seemed to Anne, as she kissed her friends good-by and ran
light-heartedly up the steps.

The gift-giving and gift-receiving and merry-making of the Christmas
holidays brought Anne back into the circle of her schoolmates. But her
troubles were not over. One afternoon early in the new year, Mrs.
Patterson and Miss Drayton came for the promised interview with
Mademoiselle Duroc. She showed them the purse and jewels discovered in
Anne's possession, and told them the whole story. Mrs. Patterson and
Miss Drayton were amazed. They had never before seen any of the
articles. Miss Drayton had packed Anne's trunk on the steamer and had
unpacked and repacked it at the Liverpool hotel and she was sure that
the things were not in the child's baggage. Two of the rings were of
considerable value. The locket was handsome and looked like an heirloom.

"The child does not know whose portrait it contains,--that she
confesses," said Mademoiselle Duroc. "And there is the money--the gold
piece."

Perplexed as she was, Mrs. Patterson's faith was unshaken in the child
who had always seemed so straightforward and honorable. Miss Drayton
wanted to believe in Anne, but she remembered the uncle whose story they
had not told Mademoiselle; after all, they knew little of the child;
nothing of her family, except that her uncle had used his employer's
money and had fled from justice. Was the taint of dishonesty in her
blood? For all her candid appearance, Anne had been keeping a secret.
But perhaps there was some explanation which she would make to her
friends, though she had withheld it from Mademoiselle Duroc.

Anne was summoned and came tripping into the room. Her face clouded when
she saw the jewels in Mademoiselle Duroc's hand and the grave,
questioning faces of her friends.

"Don't ask me about those, please, dear Mrs. Patterson," she entreated.
"I can't tell you anything now.