“I didn’t know, I guessed,” answered Billie.
“Did you leave it in your locker?” some one else asked.
“Yes, yes. I left it there at noon to-day. Twenty dollars my mamma gave to me to keep for her. Oh, is it not terrible? She will eat me with her anger.”
Billie could hardly keep the corners of her mouth from curving with an irrepressible smile when she remembered those two front tusks of Mme. Alta’s, which seemed to be uncovered, ready for work at any moment.
“Are you sure it is not there still?” asked Elinor quietly. “I happened to look up when you came into the room. You simply flung open your locker door and then began to cry. Why don’t you look in your pockets before you decide that you have lost the money?”
Fannie flashed an angry glance at Elinor.
“How did you know that I had not looked before; that I have not looked twice, many times?”
“I didn’t,” answered Elinor. “Have you?”
Fannie did not reply and from that moment she and Elinor disliked each other intensely.
Then the girls began looking carefully about the room.