d energetically in a
small leather bag. "Hooray! Here's a real life fifty-cent piece! I can
see it vanishing in the shape of five sundaes, at ten cents per eat. We
can't go to Sargent's. They cost fifteen----"

"I've a quarter," insinuated Irma.

"All contributions thankfully received," beamed Jerry. "On to Sargent's!
We'll talk about the weather until we get there. It's been such a
lovely day," she grimaced. "If it rains much more we'll have to do as
they do in Spain."

"What do they do in Spain?" Susan Atwell rose to the bait, despite a
warning poke from Irma.

"They let it rain," grinned Jerry. "Aren't you an innocent child?"

Well pleased with her success in putting over this time-worn joke on one
more victim, Jerry continued with a lively stream of nonsense that
lasted during the brief walk to Sargent's.

Once seated about a small round table at the back of the room, which
from long patronage they had come to look upon almost as their own, an
expectant murmur went the round of the little circle as Marjorie leaned
forward a trifle and began in a low, earnest tone. "Girls, I am going to
ask you to do something for me that perhaps you won't wish to do. All of
you know what happened last year to Connie and me. You know, too, that
if anyone has good reason to cut Mignon La Salle's acquaintance, we
would be justified in doing it. I was awfully surprised to see her come
into the study hall this morning, and I said to myself that aside from
bowing to her if I met her on the street, I would steer clear of her.
But since then something has happened to make me change my mind. Mary
wishes Mignon for a friend, and so----"

"What a little goose!" interrupted Jerry disgustedly. "I beg your
pardon, Marjorie, but I can't help saying it."

"This _is_ news!" exclaimed Muriel Harding. "Come to think of it, I
_did_ see your friend Mary walking into geometry with Mignon, Marjorie.
Why don't you enlighten her on the subject of Mignon and her doings?"

"That's just it." Marjorie repeated briefly what she had said to the
others at noon. "I'm going to Gray Gables to see Constance before I go
home," she continued, addressing the group. "You see, it's like this.
Even if Connie says I may tell Mary everything, will it be quite fair to
Mignon? And now I'm coming to the reason I asked you to come here with
me. Sometimes when a girl has done wrong and been hateful and no one
likes her, another girl comes along and begins to be friendly