, as though to blot out the disagreeable
incident with a wave of her hand.

"It certainly wouldn't be a pleasant memory," dryly agreed Judith.
"Anyhow, we know now something we've wanted to know for a long time.
That's about all that one feels like saying, except that one hopes it
won't happen again."

"I guess it won't. Let's go, girls," was all that Ethel said.

Without another word the quartette turned to the door, leaving Elsie to
her own dark meditations. She could hardly believe that she had thus
easily escaped. It appeared that these girls whom she had been so sure
she despised, had no mind for retaliation. They were simply disgusted
with her. For the first time, a dim realization of her own unworthiness
forced itself upon Elsie.

It was not strong enough to impel her to run after those who had just
disappeared and apologize for her fault. Nevertheless, Adrienne's
accusing question, "Have you then no shame to be thus so small; so
contemptible?" rang in her ears. It dawned painfully upon her that she
_was_ ashamed of herself. More, that she was done with eavesdropping for
good and all.

Early in the year she had stumbled upon the discovery that the register
in the dress closet could be efficiently used as a listening post. Its
position, low in the wall between the two closets, made it possible for
her to hear plainly the conversation of those in the next room when both
sides of the register stood open. This state of matters had existed when
first she made the discovery. More, the side opening into the dress
closet belonging to Adrienne and Ethel had remained open.

This proved conclusively to Elsie that she was alone in her discovery.
Fearful lest Alicia should note the sound of voices proceeding from the
next room, she had been careful to keep the register closed whenever
Alicia was present in their room. At times when the latter was absent,
Elsie had noiselessly opened it and taken up her position in the closet
as an eavesdropper. Now she began miserably to wish that she had never
done it.

Meanwhile, Adrienne's first move on re-entering her room was to dash
into the adjoining closet and close the treacherous register with an
energetic hand. To block further listening, she promptly stowed a
suitcase on end against it.

"_Voila!_ I have now remedied the trouble," she announced, as she
emerged from the closet. "We shall not need that register to give the
heat to us. I have closed it and placed against it