were
unwitting eavesdroppers, for Helen was talking very earnestly to one of
her boon companions, a day-pupil at the school, and one of the brightest
in it, but, like Helen, not embarrassed with riches. For some time the
girls had been saving their small allowances toward the purchase of
cameras, but so slowly did the sums accumulate that it was rather
discouraging for them. They were now talking about their respective ways
of procuring the sums of money needed, and the trifle they had managed to
save, and the small amounts they earned in one way or another, to augment
the original sums, seemed so paltry to Toinette, who never stopped to ask
whence came the five-dollar bills so regularly sent her each week, and
who, had a fancy entered her head for one, would have walked out and
bought a camera very much as she would have bought a paper of pins.

CHAPTER XXI

CONSPIRATORS

Mr. Reeve would have risen from his snug corner and discovered himself to
the girls, but Toinette laid her finger upon her lips to enjoin silence,
and, although he could not quite understand her desire to play
eavesdropper, he complied. From the subject of the cameras the girls went
on to Helen's work in the art class, for Jean was much interested in that
also, and they often built air-castles about the wonderful things they
would do when that fabulous "stone ship" should sail safely into port.
They talked earnestly for girls of thirteen and fifteen, and Mr. Reeve
could not fail to be impressed by the strength of purpose they seemed to
possess, and, having a good bit of stick-to-ativeness himself, admired it
in others. Moreover, he had been forced to make his own way in life when
young, and could sympathize with other aspiring souls.

Presently the two girls moved away, and then Toinette whispered: "I don't
know what you think of me for making you play 'Paul Pry,' but I had a
reason for it, and now I'll tell you what it was."

"I inferred as much, so kept mum."

"Well, you see, since I've been here I've waked up a little, and, somehow,
have begun to think about other people, and wonder if they were happy. At
Miss Carter's school everybody just seemed to think about themselves, or,
if they thought of anybody else, it was generally to wonder how they could
get ahead of them in some way. But here it is all so different, and
everybody seems to try to find out what they can do to make someone else
happy. I can't begin to tell you how it is d