however remote, of
repaying.

"I wish there was some way to keep me from having to take all the money
they spend on me," she said, wistfully. "As soon as we get back to the
city, I'm going to find some work to do, so that I can support myself."

She half expected Marcia to assail that idea, for it seemed to her that,
nice as she was, she belonged, like Gladys Cooper, to the class that
looked down on work and workers. But to her surprise, Marcia gave a cry
of admiration.

"It's splendid for you to feel that way, Bessie!" she said. "But, just
the same, I believe you'll have to wait until things are more settled.
It would be so much easier for Mr. Holmes to get hold of you if you were
working, you know."

"She's going to come and stay with me just as long as she wants to,"
said Dolly. "And, anyhow, I really believe things are going to be
settled for her. Perhaps I've heard something, too!"

CHAPTER VII

THE CHALLENGE

When Bessie and Dolly returned to their own camp they found Eleanor
Mercer waiting for them, and as soon as she was alone with them, she did
something that, for her, was very rare. She asked them about their talk
with Marcia Bates.

"You know that as a rule I don't interfere," she said. "Unless there is
something that makes it positively necessary for me to intrude myself, I
leave you to yourselves."

"Why, we would have told you all about it, anyhow, Miss Eleanor," said
Dolly, surprised.

"Yes, but even so, I want you to know that I'm sorry to feel that I
should ask you to tell me. As a rule, I would rather let you girls work
all these things out by yourselves, even if I see very plainly that you
are making mistakes. I think you can sometimes learn more by doing a
thing wrong, provided that you are following your own ideas, than by
doing it right when you are simply doing what someone else tells you."

"I see what you mean, Miss Eleanor," said Bessie. "But this time we
really haven't done anything, We saw Gladys, too, and--"

She went on to tell of their talk with Marcia and of the unpleasant
episode created by Gladys when she had overheard them talking.

"I think you've done very well indeed," said Eleanor, with a sigh of
relief, when she had heard the story. "I was so afraid that you would
lose your temper, Dolly. Not that I could really have blamed you if you
had, but, oh, it's so much better that you didn't. So Gladys has decided
to stay, has she!"

"Yes," said Dolly. "But Mar