“It is,” said Edina. “They’ll say I took that money, Billie. What’s worse, they’ll _think_ I took it.”
“I know you won’t. I think you’re the only one here who really knows me. It’s been a long hard fight with the rest. Now they will think I took the money and it will be the end of everything for me. I--I was beginning to be so happy here.”
Before Billie could say a word of comfort or reassurance the door opened and several of the younger girls flocked in. Their talk and laughter died at sight of Billie and Edina.
“Well!” said a dark-haired, dark-eyed, pert little thing. “You two look as if you’d been talking secrets. What’s up?”
Before Billie could stop her or could even be sure what she was going to do, Edina got to her feet and faced the curious girls.
Her eyes were red with crying, her fingers clasped and unclasped nervously, but her voice was steady as she said:
“I suppose you might as well know now as any time. That money the girls trusted me with, the money to buy the present for Miss Gay, I--I’ve lost it. Or it has been stolen!”
Billie dragged Edina to her dormitory, hoping to protect the girl, only to find her own friends lying in wait for her.
There was a crowd already gathered there, a crowd that increased in numbers rapidly. At sight of it, Edina shrank within herself and would have fled cravenly had it not been for Billie’s grip upon her hand.
“No use running away,” Billie whispered fiercely. “It’s far better to stay and face the music.”
Ray Carew pushed her way to Billie’s side. She eyed Edina coldly.
“I’ve heard so many rumors that I don’t know what to believe and what not to,” she said. “What is all this about the Gift Club money being lost, Billie?”
“I’m afraid it’s true,” said Billie gravely. “Only in my opinion it has been stolen--not lost.”
Briefly but graphically, she gave an account of her and Edina’s trip to the bank in Molata, of their surprise and consternation when Edina discovered the loss of the money.
Laura, who had taken a firm stand at Billie’s side, turned to Edina.
“Didn’t you look inside your pocketbook before you started downtown?” she asked.
“No,” she admitted. “I was so sure the money was there I--I--didn’t bother to look.”
“A fine treasurer!” came shrilly from the fringe of the crowd.