me when _you_
were not to be trusted."

Evelyn's beautiful face was crimson with anger and humiliation. She
longed to answer Jean's arraignment with a flood of words as bitter as
her own, but her determined effort of months to rule her spirit now bore
fruit.

"I'm sorry I spoke so abruptly," she said coldly. "I just heard about
the sale from Miss Correll. You were quite right in what you said. There
was a time when I could not be trusted. My trouble was about clothes,
too. Miss Harlowe helped me find my self-respect again, and this year I
am trying very hard to be an Overton girl in the truest sense of the
word. I am telling you this in confidence because I wish you to
understand why Miss Harlowe's good opinion is so dear to me."

"You can go and tell her that you knew nothing about the sale," muttered
Jean sullenly. Something in Evelyn's frank confession had made her feel
a trifle ashamed of herself.

Evelyn's violet eyes grew scornful. "How can you suggest such a thing?"
she asked.

It was Jean's turn to blush. "Forgive me," she said penitently. "I know
you aren't a tell-tale. If she asks me about the sale, be sure I'll
exonerate you."

Evelyn shook her head. "I wish you'd go to her, Jean, and tell her what
you have done. Sooner or later she is sure to find it out."

But Jean Brent was in no mood for this advice. It caused her anger to
blaze afresh. "There you go again," she blustered, "with your
goody-goody advice to me about running to Miss Harlowe with every little
thing I do. I hope I'm not such a baby. If Miss Harlowe sends for me,
don't think for a minute that I'll be afraid to face her, but until she
_does_ send for me I am not going to concern myself about it, and I
would advise you not to trouble yourself, either."

With this succinct advice Jean made a fresh onslaught on the unoffending
wardrobe. Opening it she seized her hat and coat. With a last
reverberating slam of its long-suffering doors she turned her back on it
and Evelyn, and switched defiantly out of the room and on out of the
house.

CHAPTER X

LAYING THE CORNERSTONE OF A HOUSE OF TROUBLE

Jean did not return to Harlowe House for dinner that night. Instead she
turned her steps toward Holland House, where Althea Parker lived,
assured that in Althea she would find sympathy. In spite of the fact
that Jean lived at Harlowe House, a plain acknowledgment of her lack of
means, Althea shre