agreeable. I know you would rather have me ask you now than to have
anything come out publicly later.

"BETTY."

* * * * *

Two days later Jean's answer appeared on the Belden House table.

"If you thought I had a condition in French, why didn't you go and ask
mademoiselle about it? She would undoubtedly have received you with open
arms. Yes, I believe that Miss Carter, whom you seem to know so
intimately all of a sudden, tutors the Harrison person. Just why you
should lump me with her, I don't see. I know the rule about conditions
and the play as well as you do, but being without either a condition or
a part, I can't see that it concerns me particularly.

"Yours most gratefully,
"JEAN REAVES EASTMAN."

* * * * *

Betty read this note through twice and consigned it, torn into very
small pieces, to her waste-basket. But after thinking the whole matter
over a little more carefully she decided that Jean had had ample grounds
for feeling annoyance, if not for showing it, and that there would be
just time before dinner to find her and tell her so.

Jean looked a good deal startled and not particularly pleased when she
saw Betty Wales standing in her door; but Betty, accepting Jean's
attitude as perfectly natural under the circumstances, went straight to
the point.

"I've come to apologize for my mistake, Jean," she said steadily, "and
to tell you how glad I am that it is a mistake. I don't suppose I can
make you understand why I was so sure--or at least so afraid----"

"Oh, we needn't go into that," said Jean, with an attempt at
graciousness. "I suppose Miss Carter said something misleading. You are
quite excusable, I think."

"No," said Betty, "I'm not. I've studied logic and argument and I ought
to know better than to depend on circumstantial evidence. I'm very, very
sorry."

Jean looked at her keenly. "I suppose you and Eleanor have discussed
this affair together. What did she think?"

"I haven't mentioned it to her since the afternoon we were at Miss
Carter's, and she doesn't know that I wrote you. That day we both felt
the same--that is, we didn't know what to think. If you don't mind, I
should like to tell her that it's all right."

"Why in the world should you bother to do that?" asked J