t. Do you, Marcia?"

"Of course not! He's got something up his sleeve. Probably she is
heiress to a fortune, or something like that, and he wants to get hold
of it. He's a very rich man, isn't he, Dolly?"

"Yes. You know he's the owner of a great big department store at home.
And Bessie says that it can't be any question of money that makes him so
anxious to get hold of her and of Zara, because he has so much already."

"H'm! I guess people who have money like to make more, Dolly. I've heard
my father talk about that. He says they're never content, and that's one
reason why so many men work themselves to death, simply because they
haven't got sense enough to stop and rest when they have enough money to
live comfortably for the rest of their lives."

"That's another thing I've told her. And she says that can't be the
reason, but just the same she never suggests a better one to take its
place."

"Look here," said Marcia, thoughtfully. "If Mr. Holmes is spending so
much money, doesn't it cost a whole lot to stop him from doing what he's
trying to do, whatever that is? I'm just thinking--my father has ever so
much, you know, and I know if I told him, he'd be glad to spend whatever
was needed--"

Bessie finished unhappily.

"Oh, that's one thing that is worrying me terribly!" she cried, "I just
know that Miss Eleanor and Mr. Jamieson must have spent a terrible lot
on my affairs already, and I don't see how I'm ever going to pay them
back! And if I ever mention it, Miss Eleanor gets almost angry, and says
I mustn't talk about it at all, even think of it."

"Why, of course you mustn't. It would be awful to think that those
horrid people were able to get hold of you and make you unhappy just
because they had money and you didn't, Bessie."

And Dolly echoed her exclamation. Naturally enough, Marcia, whose
parents were among the richest people in the state, thought little of
money, and Dolly, who had always had plenty, even though her family was
by no means as rich as Marcia's, felt the same way about the matter.
Neither of them valued money particularly; but Bessie, because she had
lived ever since she could remember in a family where the pinch of
actual poverty was always felt, had a much truer appreciation of the
value of money.

She did not want to possess money, but she had a good deal of native
pride, and it worried her constantly to think that her good friends were
spending money that she could see no prospect,