Yet all she needed was a quarter: ten cents for
herself, ten for Janet, and five for her small brother. She couldn't go
without Janet and Jack and, as she hadn't a cent anyhow, it was just as
easy to plan the expenditure of a quarter as of a dime.

She wondered idly if there could by some happy chance be more in her
bank than she supposed. She hadn't counted her savings for nearly a
week. There wasn't much likelihood that a dime or a quarter or a nickel
had escaped her count, but perhaps now--... There was one chance in a
thousand, for Rosie was not very strong in addition. At any rate, after
supper she would slip up to the wardrobe and, with a bent hairpin, make
investigations. A dollar ninety-five was all she was responsible for to
the world at large. If her bank contained more, she could appropriate
the surplus and no one be the wiser.

Supper afforded one excitement.

"Oh, lookee!" Jack suddenly cried, pointing an excited finger at Ellen.
It was the period of pompadour and false hair and Rosie and Terence,
following Jack's finger, saw a new cluster of shiny black curls in
Ellen's already elaborate coiffure.

"Get on to the curls, Rosie," Terence remarked facetiously. "Lord, ain't
we stylish!"

Ellen made no remark but seemed a little flurried.

"Shame on you, Terry!" Mrs. O'Brien expostulated. "Talkin' so of your
own sister! Don't you know if Ellen's to be a stenog, she's got to be
careful of her appearance? All the young ladies at the college are
wearing curls."

Terence answered shortly: "She can wear all the curls she wants as soon
as she's able to pay for them. But I tell you one thing, Ma: you needn't
think you're going to get me to pay for them, because I won't. She tried
to work me for them last week and I told her I wouldn't."

Ellen regarded her brother distantly. "You make me tired, Terence
O'Brien. When you're asked to pay for these curls it'll be time for you
to squeal."

"Are they paid for already?"

"Of course they're paid for already. Do you think I can get curls on
tick?"

Terence's incredulity changed to suspicion. Turning to his mother he
demanded: "Did you give her the two dollars you begged from me for the
baby's food?"

Mrs. O'Brien spread out distracted hands. "Why, Terry lad, of course I
didn't! Rosie went to the drug-store herself with the money, didn't you,
Rosie?"

Yes, Rosie had, but even this did not satisfy Terry.

"Well, anyhow, I bet she's playing crooked somewhere!"