d I had too much--it was a long word--too much self--self--
oh, I know, confidence--self-confidence. I don't know what it means,
but I am sure I haven't got it; and if I have," wound up Betty
defiantly, "I _won't_ get cured of it. Do you know what it means,
Kitty?"

"Yes," said Kitty thoughtfully, "I think I do; but I don't see how going
to the same school can cure us both."

At the end of a few days Mrs. Pike went away to get Anna, and to collect
their numerous belongings; and the doctor's household felt that it had
before it one week of glorious freedom, but only one.

In anticipation of this, their last happy free time, the children had
made plans for each day of it, intending to enjoy them to the utmost.
Somehow, though, things were different. There was a shadow even over
their freedom--if it was not there in the morning, it fell before
night--and they returned home each day weighted with a sense of
weariness and depression. There was the shadow, too, of Dan's
departure, and a very deep shadow it was.

"Things will never, never be the same again," said Kitty sagely.
"Dan won't know about all that we do; and when he gets a lot of boy
friends he won't care very much."

There was also the shadow of their own school and the constant
companionship of Anna, and this was a dense shadow indeed.

"It wouldn't be so bad if she was jolly and nice, but it will be like
having a spy always with us," said Betty. "She will tell Aunt Pike
everything."

"You don't know," said Dan, to tease them. "Anna may have grown up
quite different from what she was, and be as jolly as possible." But the
suggestion did not console the girls; to them it only seemed that Dan
was already forsaking them, that this was but another step over to the
enemy.

"She couldn't be jolly," said Betty firmly. "She wouldn't know how, and
Aunt Pike wouldn't let her if she wanted to. And even if she seemed so,
I shouldn't feel that I could trust her."

"Bosh!" said Dan emphatically. "One can always tell if a person is to
be trusted or not."

"Well, I can tell that I shall _not_ trust Anna _ever_," cried Betty
viciously, roused to deep anger by Dan's championship of Anna Pike.

But Dan was not impressed. "Oh well," he said, turning carelessly on
his heel, "if you are so narrow-minded and have made up your mind not to
like her, it is no use to say anything more."

"I am not narrow-minded," cried Betty hotly. "I don't know what you
mean."