new forms.
She is proposing to show us how to make delicious dishes for luncheon or
dinner from wild things now going to waste. What the girls said was so
interesting that I thought I'd get a copy and if I see anything good
I'll turn it over to Katy."
"And where's Katy going to get the wild vegetables?" asked Linda
sceptically.
"Why you might have some of them in your wild garden, or you could
easily find enough to try--all the prowling the canyons you do ought to
result in something."
"So it should," said Linda. "I quite agree with you. Did I understand
you to say that I should be ready to go to the bank with you to arrange
about my income next week?"
Again the color deepened in Eileen's face, again she made a visible
effort at self-control.
"Oh, Linda," she said, "what is the use of being so hard? You will make
them think at the bank that I have not treated you fairly."
"_I_?" said Linda, "_I_ will make them think? Don't you think it is YOU
who will make them think? Will you kindly answer my question?"
"If I show you the books," said Eileen, "if I divide what is left after
the bills are paid so that you say yourself that it is fair, what more
can you ask?"
Linda hesitated.
"What I ought to do is exactly what I have said I would do," she said
tersely, "but if you are going to put it on that basis I have no desire
to hurt you or humiliate you in public. If you do that, I can't see that
I have any reason to complain, so we'll call it a bargain and we'll say
no more about it until the first of the month, unless the spirit moves
you, after taking a good square look at me, to produce some shoes and a
school dress instanter."
"I'll see what I can do," answered Eileen.
"All right then," said Linda. "See you at dinner."
She went to her own room, slipped off her school dress, brushed her
hair, and put on the skirt and blouse she had worn the previous evening,
these being the only extra clothing she possessed. As she straightened
her hair she looked at herself intently.
"My, aren't you coming on!" she said to the figure in the glass.
"Dressing for dinner! First thing you know you'll be a perfect lady."
CHAPTER VI. Jane Meredith
When Eileen came down to dinner that evening Linda understood at a
glance that an effort was to be made to efface thoroughly from the mind
of John Gilman all memory of the Eileen of the previous evening. She had
decided on redressing her hair, while she wore one of h
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