Linda should not drive the car she had driven for her father, or why
she should not take with her Donald Whiting or Peter Morrison or Henry
Anderson. The thing that rankled was that the car belonged to Linda. The
touring car which she might have owned and driven, had she so desired,
lay in an extremely slender string of pearls around her neck at that
instant. She reflected that if she had kept her car and made herself
sufficiently hardy to drive it, she might have been the one to
have taken Peter Morrison to his home location and to have had many
opportunities for being with him.

"I've been a fool," said Eileen, tugging at the pearls viciously. "They
are nothing but a little bit of a string that looks as if I were trying
to do something and couldn't, at best. What I've got to do is to think
more of myself. I've got to plan some way to prevent Linda from being
too popular until I really get my mind made up as to what I want to do."

CHAPTER XIII. Leavening the Bread of Life

"'A house that is divided against itself cannot stand,'" quoted Linda.
"I must keep in mind what Eileen said, not that there is the slightest
danger, but to fall behind in my grades is a thing that simply must not
happen. If it be true that Peter and Henry can so easily and so cheaply
add a few improvements in my workroom in connection with Peter's
building, I can see no reason why they shouldn't do it, so long as I pay
for it. I haven't a doubt but that there will be something I can do
for Peter, before he finishes his building, that he would greatly
appreciate, while, since I'm handy with my pencil, I MIGHT be able to
make a few head and tail pieces for some of his articles that would make
them more attractive. I don't want to use any friend of mine: I don't
want to feel that I am not giving quite as much as I get, but I think I
see my way clear, between me and the Bear Cat, to pay for all the favors
I would receive in altering my study.

"First thing I do I must go through Father's books and get the money for
them, so I'll know my limitation when I come to select furniture. And
I don't know that I am going to be so terribly modest when it comes to
naming the sum with which I'll be satisfied for my allowance. Possibly I
shall exercise my age-old prerogative and change my mind; I may just say
'half' right out loud and stick to it. And there's another thing. Since
the editor of Everybody's Home has started my department and promised
that if i