wondered if she and Marian would have become enemies. She decided that
they must have. They had nothing whatever in common.

Light, hurrying feet on the walk brought Jane's retrospective musings to
an end. She saw Alicia a second before the latter saw her. Promptly
rising, she headed Alicia off neatly as she gained the steps.

"I want to speak to you, Alicia," she greeted evenly. "You must listen
to me."

"I have nothing to say to you. Please let me alone."

A dull flush mantled Alicia's pale cheeks as she thus spoke. Her tones
indicated injury rather than anger.

"But I have something to say to you," persisted Jane. "I must know
positively why you have turned against me. It's not fair in you to keep
me in the dark. Do you think it is? What have I done to deserve such
treatment?"

Stopping on the step below Jane, Alicia stared hard at the quiet,
purposeful face looking down on her.

"I believed in you, Jane," she said sadly, with a little catch of
breath. "You made me admire you. Then you spoiled it all. It hurt me so.
I--I--don't want to talk about it."

She took an undecided step to the right, as though to pass Jane and flee
into the house.

"Don't go, Alicia. Let's get together and straighten things out." Jane
laid a gentle hand on the other girl's arm. "I'm sure we can. You
promised last year to be my friend. Have you forgotten that?"

"How can I be the friend of a girl who talks about me?" Alicia cried out
bitterly. "A girl who only pretends friendship?"

"So, that's it. I thought as much. Now tell me what I said about you."

Something in Jane's steady glance caused Alicia's eyes to waver.

"You told Ethel Lacey that you wished you didn't have to invite me to go
with you girls to the Inn the other night, but you felt that you could
hardly get out of it. That I expected you to do it. You know that's not
true. I'd never intrude where I wasn't wanted."

"Did Ethel tell you this?" Jane asked composedly.

"No. Someone else overheard you say it," retorted Alicia.

"And that 'someone else'?"

"I won't tell you. I promised I wouldn't."

"You don't need to tell me, because I _know_." Jane emphasized the
_know_. "It's not true. I didn't say that. This is what I said."

As well as she could recall it, she repeated the conversation that had
taken place between herself and Ethel.

"I asked Ethel to invite you because I didn't want you to go to your
room," she explained. "Miss Noble and I are not on speak