Pat Casey--her father---was one of the wealthiest men in town.
He was a contractor and an honest, respectable man, but his wife was
a pusher, trying to bluff her way into society. She was ignorant and
disagreeable. People refused to receive her. Nora had been only half
educated at a convent. Mrs. Casey, hearing of the Camp Fire Girls,
bethought herself that it would be an opening for Honora, so she boldly
called upon Miss Kate and asked--yes, begged--that Nora might belong; and
Kate, who was kind-hearted, received the girl to the great joy of Mrs.
Pat. Having been born in the old country, both parents spoke with a
brogue. Occasionally, from association, Nora would use it; then she would
stop suddenly, turn red, and speak perfect English. Ethel disliked her
even more than she did Mattie.

One day as she was helping wash dishes she lost a valuable diamond ring.
It had been her Grandmother's engagement ring and she was heart-broken.
Although they searched everywhere no trace of it could they find, but as
they were walking up the hill a week or so afterwards they thought they
saw Mattie Hastings through the trees. They called as a jest, "We've seen
you and you're discovered--come out!" Whereupon someone shrieked, and
proceeding to the spot they found Mattie lying upon the ground. She had
walked in the sun and had started to run and had fallen over some stumps.
Instantly they saw that she had been prostrated by the heat, and having
recently studied "First aid to the injured" they proceeded to remove her
blouse and open her corset, when lo! there upon a silver chain around her
neck was not only Ethel Hollister's ring but another belonging to Honora
Casey. She had missed it a few days after Ethel had lost hers, but she
wisely refrained from speaking of it to anyone but Patty Sands, adding,
"Shure, it would only be afther worryin' Miss Kate, and it might turn up.
I'll bide me time."

Mattie, upon recovering consciousness and seeing that her secret had been
discovered handed the rings to Ethel saying that she should kill herself.
The girls, seeing that she was desperate, replied that as one of their
"seven laws" was to "render service," if she would confess why she had
taken the rings they would shield her. Overjoyed, the girl did so. She
told everything. She had done it for her young sister who had dislocation
of the spine, whereby she might be converting them into money have the
child placed in the Cripples Hospital and treate