"Why, Marjorie, how did you know I'd lost them?"
"Oh, I heard all about it. A little bird told me," said Marjorie, as she shut the door into her room.
When Jean entered her own room she found Elizabeth waiting for her. She was sitting at her desk and held in one hand Jean's coral beads.
"Oh, Jean, what do you think! I've found your coral beads, but in the queerest place. I just went to my desk to get my fountain pen which I keep in the little drawer at the right, and there were the beads. How do you suppose they got there? Some one must have put them there, but you don't believe I did it, do you?"
"No, indeed, Elizabeth. You'd be the last person in the world to put them there."
Without another word Jean turned and almost ran up to Grace Hooper's room and fortunately found her alone. "Gracie, did you tell any one besides Mary Boynton about my losing my beads?"
"No, Jean; don't you know we decided it was best to say nothing about it. Have you found them?"
"Yes, they were only misplaced, so please don't say anything more about it to anybody. I'm glad now that I didn't put up a notice on the bulletin board; it would have caused so much talk. Good-by. I can't stop; I've a lot of studying to do," and she hurried on to Mary Boynton's room, where she found Mary and her room-mate hard at their lessons for the next day.
"Please excuse me, Ethel, if I take Mary out in the hall to whisper to her a moment." When they shut the door behind them Jean began excitedly, "Mary Boynton, did you tell any one besides Grace Hooper about my losing my coral beads? I've found them again; they were only misplaced, and I'm sorry I bothered you about them. Did you tell any of the girls?"
"No, Jean; to tell you the honest truth, I haven't thought about the matter since Tuesday night. You were coming to me Monday morning if you didn't find them, and when you didn't appear I decided you'd found them."