place. I'm
going to stay here, and I'm going to have a good time, and you'd better
look out for yourselves--that's all I can say! Maybe I know more about
you than you think."

And then she turned on her heel and left them.

"Whew!" said Marcia. "I don't see how you kept your temper, Dolly. If
she'd said half as much to me as she did to you, I never could have
stood it, I can tell you! Whatever did she mean by what she said just
then about knowing more than we thought?"

"I don't know," said Dolly, rather anxiously. "But look here, Marcia, I
might as well tell you now. There's likely to be a good deal of
excitement here."

"Yes," said Bessie, rather bitterly. "And it's all my fault--mine and
Zara's, that is."

"I don't see what you can mean," said Marcia, mystified.

"Well, it's quite a long story, but I really think you'd better know all
about it, Marcia," said Dolly.

And so, with occasional help from Bessie herself, when Dolly forgot
something, or when Bessie's ideas disagreed with hers, Dolly poured the
story of the adventures of Bessie and Zara since their flight from
Hedgeville into Marcia's ears.

"Why, I never heard of such a thing!" Marcia exclaimed, when the story
was told. "So that fire last night wasn't an accident at all?"

"We're quite sure it wasn't, Marcia. And don't you think it looks as if
we were right?"

"It certainly does, and I think it's dreadful, Dolly--just dreadful. Oh,
Bessie, I am so sorry for you!"

She threw her arms about Bessie impulsively and kissed her, while Dolly,
delighted, looked on.

"Doesn't it make you love her more than ever?" she said. "And Bessie is
so foolish about it sometimes. She seems to think that girls won't want
to have anything to do with her, because she hasn't had a home and
parents like the rest of us--or like most of us."

"That _is_ awfully silly, Bessie," said Marcia. "As if it was your
fault! People are going to like you for what you are, and for the way
you behave--not on account of things that you really haven't a thing to
do with. Sensible people, I mean. Of course, if they're like Gladys--but
then most people aren't, I think."

"Of course they're not!" said Dolly, stoutly. "And, besides, I'm just
sure that Bessie is going to find out about her father and mother some
day. I don't believe Mr. Holmes would be taking all the trouble he has
about her unless there were something very surprising about her history
that we don't know anything abou