""Supposedly lost?"" repeated Mignon, arching her eyebrows. "Have you found it? If you have, give it to me at once."
"There is only one person who can do that," said Marjorie, gravely, "and that person is you."
The betraying color flew to the French girl"s cheeks. "What do you mean?" she asked, but her voice shook.
"Why do you ask me that?" retorted Marjorie, with sudden impatience.
"You know that on the night of the Weston dance you pretended you had lost your bracelet in order to throw suspicion on Miss Stevens. Someone saw you lay your bracelet on the dressing table. The same person saw you leave the room, return a few minutes afterward and pick it up from the table. How could you be so cruel and dishonorable?"
"It isn"t true," stormed Mignon. "Constance Stevens is a thief. A thief, do you hear? And when she comes back to Sanford the school shall know it."
"No, Constance Stevens is not a thief. You are the real thief," said Marjorie with quiet condemnation. "Knowing the b.u.t.terfly pin to be mine, you kept it for many weeks. However, I did not come here to quarrel with you. I came to help Marcia and to save you from the effects of your own wrongdoing. Constance Stevens is in Sanford. She is going to Miss Archer to-morrow to prove her innocence. I am going with her. The girl who knows the truth about your bracelet will be there, too. You knew long ago that Constance"s b.u.t.terfly pin was her very own."
"Of course I knew it," sneered Mignon. There was a look of consternation in her eyes, however.
"Then that is another point against you. You do not deserve to be let off so easily, but for Marcia"s sake, I am going to say that if you will go with Constance and me to Miss Archer to-morrow morning and withdraw your charges against Constance, stating that you have your bracelet, we will never mention the subject again. Meet me in Miss Archer"s outer office at twenty minutes past eight." She did not even turn to look at the discomfited Mignon as she issued her command.
"Marjorie," said Marcia, hesitatingly, as they walked in silence down the poplar-shaded street. "Shall I--had I--do you wish me to go with you to Miss Archer?"
Marjorie cast a quick, searching glance at the thoroughly repentant junior. "What for?" she smiled, ignoring all that had been. They had now come to where their ways parted. Marjorie held out her hand. "We are going to be friends forever and always, aren"t we, Marcia?"
Marcia clasped the extended hand with fervor. ""Forever and always,""
she repeated. And through all their high school days that followed she kept her word.
Three unusually silent young women met in Miss Archer"s living-room office the next morning and awaited their opportunity to see the princ.i.p.al.
"Miss Archer will see you," Marcia Arnold informed them after a wait of perhaps five minutes, and the trio filed into the inner office.
"Good morning, girls," greeted Miss Archer, viewing them searchingly.
"Miss Stevens, I am glad that you have returned, but I am sorry to say that during your absence I have heard a number of unpleasant rumors concerning you."
Constance flushed, then her color receded, leaving her very white.
Before the princ.i.p.al could continue, Marjorie"s earnest tones rang out.
"Miss Archer, Miss Stevens and I had a misunderstanding. When you asked me about it I could not tell you. It has since been cleared away. My b.u.t.terfly pin has been found, but it was not the one Miss Stevens wore.
See, here are the two pins. Mine has no pearls at the tips of the wings."
She extended her open palm to the princ.i.p.al. In it lay two b.u.t.terfly pins, precisely alike save for the pearl-tipped wings of the one.
Miss Archer looked long at the pins. Then she lifted them to meet the blue and the brown eyes whose gaze was fastened earnestly upon her. What she saw seemed to satisfy her. She held out her hand to Marjorie and Constance in turn.
"They are very alike," was her sole comment, as Marjorie returned Constance"s pin. Then Miss Archer turned to Mignon.
"I am sorry I accused Miss Stevens of taking my bracelet," murmured Mignon, sulkily. "I have it in my possession. Here it is." She thrust out an unwilling wrist, on which was the bracelet.
"I am glad that you have exonerated Miss Stevens from all suspicion."
Miss Archer"s quiet face expressed little of what was going on in her mind. "I am also thankful that an apparently serious matter has been so easily settled." She did not offer her hand to Mignon, who left the office without answering.
A moment later, Marjorie and Constance were in the outer office standing at Marcia Arnold"s desk. "It"s all settled, Marcia, with no names mentioned," she said rea.s.suringly. "Good-bye, we"ll see you later.
We"ll have to hurry or we"ll be late for the opening exercises."
In the corridor outside the study hall, Marcia and Constance paused by common consent and faced each other.
"Connie, dear," Marjorie said softly. "There"s only a little more than a month of our freshman year left. It isn"t very much time, but I believe we won"t have to try very hard to make up in happiness for what we"ve lost."
"I am so happy this morning, and so grateful to you, Marjorie, for all you"ve done for me, and most of all for your friendship," was Constance"s earnest answer. "I hope you will never have cause to question my loyalty and that next year we"ll be soph.o.m.ore chums, tried and true."
"We"ll simply have to be," laughed Marjorie, with joyous certainty, "for I don"t see how we can very well get along without each other."
THE END