felt tempted to do.

Then Katie told Tessa all about the fifty-dollar bill, of which she had
never heard before and Bertie's unkindness in setting everybody against
her; and Tessa said she had heard the rumors, and often tried to make
the girls tell her what they meant, but the only thing she could find
out was that Katie was dishonest.

"I wonder you were friends with me, then," said Katie. "I should think
you would have avoided me, just as all the other girls did. Weren't you
ashamed to associate with a thief?"

"Oh, Katie, you know I couldn't believe such a thing of you!--you who
have been my best friend--the only real friend I have ever had."

"But why didn't you tell me what you had heard, and ask me to explain
it? You see how easily I could have done so."

"Somehow I didn't like to. It seemed like doubting you even to repeat
the lies. I knew they were lies all the time, and I loved you better
than anybody else in the world. What consequence was it to me what other
people said about you?"

How to clear the matter up, neither of the girls knew. For it would be
still more cruel and dishonorable, as they thought, to tell what Bertie
had done, now that she had confessed it herself and was lying so low.
But Katie had learned to "commit her way unto the Lord," and she was not
troubled any more about the matter.

"I should think you'd hate Bertie," said Tessa, with Italian intensity.
"I don't see how you could bring yourself to stay there and take care of
her when you knew how much she had injured you. I should have felt like
putting poison into her drink or smothering her with the pillows."

"No, you wouldn't," said the other, laughing, but immediately becoming
grave again. "You couldn't hate any one who was dying, and besides, it
wouldn't be like Jesus."

"I don't understand."

"Don't you see? Jesus gave up his life for sinners, for those who were
his enemies. It makes me love him whenever I think of it, and I want to
be like him. This was a good chance, and I think he helped me to
overcome all kind of hard feeling. I only longed to do everything I
could to make her more comfortable."

"I wish I could love Jesus as you do. My father used to tell me
religion was just the priests deceiving silly women, and reminded me how
the robbers and beggars in Italy would kneel before the crucifixes, shed
tears as they said their prayers, and then turn away and be just as
wicked as before. But to you it all seems real, a