"

Edna pricked up her ears. "Is it Clara Adams's father?" she asked.

"Does she live on the square?" asked her mother.

"Yes, in a big white house with lions in front just like father said."

"Then, of course, it is the same."

"What has happened to him, mother?"

"He has lost a great deal of money, dear?"

"Oh, poor Clara."

"I'm afraid she will be poor Clara sure enough," returned her father.
"He can't keep up that way of living very long. His wife is as
extravagant as he is, and I doubt if there is much left out of the
estate."

Edna wondered if Clara would have to live in a tiny, little house like
Nettie's and if she would be very unhappy. Would she leave school,
and--There were so many wonderings that she asked her mother a great
many questions, and went off on Monday morning feeling quite ready to
give Clara all the sympathy she needed.

But Clara was not at school on Monday, but on the next day she appeared.
The news of her father's failure was common talk so that every girl in
school had heard of it, and wondered if it would have any effect on
Clara. For a time it did not, but in a short time it was whispered about
that the Adamses had removed to another street and into a much smaller
house. Clara no longer came to school in the automobile, and those girls
who had clung to her on account of the powers of riches now openly
deserted, declared that she had left their neighborhood and in
consequence could no longer belong to their club. Then in a little while
it was announced that the club had disbanded, and the remaining members
came in a body and begged that they might be taken into the G. R.'s.
There was much discussion. Some were for, some were against it, but
finally the rule of the club was acted upon and the five new members
took their places, leaving Clara in lonely grandeur. She treated this
desertion with such open scorn and was so very unpleasant to those who
had formerly been her friends, that they turned their backs upon her
utterly, declaring that they would rather pay a fine every day in the
week than be nice to Clara Adams.

"Hateful thing!" Edna heard Nellie Haskell say one day quite loud
enough for Clara to hear. "She's kept us out of a lot of fun and we
were geese to keep in with her so long. I'm sorry I ever had anything to
do with her. I think she is the most disagreeable girl that ever was."

Edna looked over at Clara who was sitting very still by herself on a
bench in one corne