y assured her
blithely.

"Do you want this bottle?" Miss Anderson called after her, as she started
for the school.

Miss Anderson had been studying both girls as she waited quietly.

Now Betty turned, smiled radiantly, and took the bottle the teacher held
out to her. With careful aim, worthy of Bob's training, she fixed her eye
on a handy rock, hurled the bottle with all her strength, and had the
satisfaction of seeing it dashed into a thousand fragments as it struck
the target squarely.

Then she trotted sedately on to her delayed recitation, and Miss Anderson
and the scowling Ada followed more slowly.

Just before dinner that night there came a knock on Betty's door, and
Virgie Smith, one of Ada's friends, thrust a package at Bobby, who had
answered the tap.

Betty managed to turn aside her chum's curiosity and to get away to
Libbie and give her the note. They burned it in the flame of a candle,
and counted the money. It was all there, folded just as Libbie had
placed it in the bottle. Evidently Ada had never carried it.

Libbie paid Louise the money she had borrowed of her and gave Betty the
amount she owed her, most of which was Bob's.

"Now do try to be more sensible, Libbie," pleaded Betty, turning to go
back to Bobby. "When you want to do something romantic think twice and
count a hundred."

"I will!" promised Libbie fervently. "I'll never be so silly
again, Betty."

But dear me, she was, a hundred times! But in a different way each time.
Libbie would be Libbie to the end of the chapter.

Betty, rushing back to brush her hair for dinner, heard a sound
suspiciously like a sob as she passed Norma Guerin's door. It was
unlatched, and as no one answered when she tapped Betty gently pushed it
open and stepped into the room.

Norma lay on her bed crying as though her heart would break, and Alice,
looking very forlorn and solemn, was holding a letter in her hand.

CHAPTER XX

THE SECOND DEGREE

"My patience, what a world of trouble this is!" sighed Betty to herself,
but aloud she said cheerily: "What's the matter with Norma?"

Norma sat up, mopping her eyes.

"Oh, Betty," she choked, "I don't believe Alice and I can come back
after Christmas! They've had a fire in Glenside and a house dad owns
there burned. He hasn't a cent of insurance, and the mortgagee takes
the ground. So that's the rental right out of our income. Besides,
grandma has had an operation on her eyes and she has to spend w