."

"Is that all?" Polly demanded. "It is awfully foolish of her, of
course, to be so extravagant, but it isn't such a dreadful crime. And
as I suppose she has charged what she got, she can just save up and pay
back her bills by degrees."

Betty shook her head. "Don't be a goose, dear. Edith can't charge
things in Woodford. She hasn't any credit in the shops like your
mother and mine have. She is only a poor girl working for her own
support, with her family not living here and with no position when they
were. No, you see she borrowed the money from the woman she was
working for without telling her. She meant to pay it back of course,
only, only----"

"You mean she stole it from her?" Polly exclaimed in a hushed tone.
This was a good deal worse than anything which she had anticipated.
She had always considered Edith Norton foolish and vain; but then
surely the Camp Fire had helped her, had given her the ideals and the
training that she had never learned at home. Betty was crying so
bitterly and so openly that Polly felt she must comfort her friend
first before criticising or attempting to suggest a solution to the
other girl's problem.

"But, dear, if you wish Edith's trouble kept a secret, you must not
weep over her, just as you get home," she protested. "Don't you know
that everybody in the house will be demanding to know what the matter
is at once, and the Professor can hardly be kept from weeping with you?
I can't think of anything to suggest to Edith except that she confess
what she has done and ask Madame to let her return the money by working
for it."

"I told her that, but she did not believe that she would be forgiven,"
Betty explained. "Oh, if I only had just a little of the money I used
to throw away! I don't mind being poor so much myself, Polly; it is
when I so want to do for other people."

"You don't have to tell me that, Princess," her friend replied quietly.
"But, dear, this time I am glad you have not the money. Because you
know it would not be right for you just to give Edith the money and
have her give it back without any one's knowing. At least, I don't
quite think so. And yet I am awfully sorry that Edith and I should
both in our different ways have broken our Camp Fire law. And I will
do anything I can think of to help her. Do you know, dear, how long
she has been in this difficulty?

"Oh, I think about two weeks," Betty answered. "But she only confided
in me yesterday.