e. What made you
do a thing like this without consulting some one? Did Winnie know?"

"No," said Rosemary reluctantly, "Winnie didn't know. No one did. I
wanted to earn some money, Hugh."

Then came the question she had been dreading.

"What for?"

Rosemary nervously knotted and unknotted her handkerchief. Her blue
eyes roved around the familiar room and came back to the grim face
and the dark eyes which watched her relentlessly.

"Oh, Hugh!" she cried desperately, "PLEASE!"

Her brother picked up a paper weight and studied it intently.

"Look here, Rosemary," he began more gently, "you deliberately
disobeyed this afternoon when I asked you to stay in the house--"

"Because I had absolutely promised Mrs. Hepburn, Hugh," Rosemary
broke in eagerly. "I'd _promised_! She was depending on me and I had
to go."

"Very well, a promise is a promise," admitted the doctor, "though
when wrongly given sometimes they must be broken. We'll set aside
the fact that you disobeyed and consider only this wild scheme
apparently undertaken because you wanted to earn money. I want you
to tell me why you thought you needed money and why you couldn't
come to me and ask for it."

"Because," whispered Rosemary unhappily, "Because."

"That's no reason," said the doctor brusquely. "Come, 'fess up,
Rosemary, and I'll help you out of the scrape, whatever it is. My
dear little girl, you can't go around among the neighbors like
this--families help each other and stand by each other. I don't care
a hoot what other people may think--as Aunt Trudy seems to believe I
should--but I care a great deal that my little sister should go to
outsiders instead of coming to me."

Rosemary touched his sleeve timidly. She longed to throw herself in
his arms, cry that she was tired of taking care of silly,
uninteresting babies (though as a matter of fact when she wasn't
tired she loved them all, the cross as well as the good-natured
ones), and tell him the whole story about the lost ring. But there
was her promise to Sarah. A promise was a promise--Hugh himself had
said so. And families were to stand by each other, and she must
stand by Sarah and Shirley.

"I can't tell you, Hugh," said Rosemary earnestly. "I just can't."

"You mean you won't," said the doctor sternly. "Well, go up and
bring me down this bank--I suppose that was the one you and Sarah
were quarreling over the other night? And you put the money you
earned in that? I thought so; bring it