“Of course I don’t; but you are as cold as charity. Here, snuggle up to me. What’s the matter, old girl?”
“Oh, Jim, I stole a sovereign from father to-day; I took it out of his purse in his bedroom when all the visitors were here. I opened the drawer and took a sovereign out of the purse and slipped it into my pocket. At the time I thought I’d tell him, but now I haven’t the courage. I thought perhaps Clay would tell him, but I couldn’t get it out—Oh, I’m a very miserable girl. I don’t know what to do—”
“But tell me,” said Jim, “what in the world did you want with a sovereign? To think that my sister should steal just like the commonest, lowest-minded, most unprincipled girl.”
“Oh, don’t rub it in so hard, Jim. Don’t, don’t,” said Penelope.
“Well, tell me all about it.”
She did tell him.
“It was Nesta—we had a bet—it was about Clay and that horrid St. Just girl. We made a bet that if Clay got an introduction through Marcia Aldworth that Nesta should have a sovereign; but if it was the other way, I was to have the sovereign. I didn’t think about it, for I knew she could never pay it if she lost, but somehow or other it all came about as she wished, and she came tearing over with that horrid friend of hers, Flossie Griffiths, and dashed into the middle of our party. She would speak to me, and she took me away and demanded the money. I did what I could to put her off; but she said she’d go straight to father and tell him before every one that I had made a bet and broken it. So I was desperate; I took the only money I could find. Oh, what am I to do; what am I to do? Do you think father will be frightfully angry?”
“I expect he won’t much like it.”
“Oh, Jim, what am I to do?”
“I’ll see about it,” said Jim. “Now, look here, Pen, I’m not going to let you off altogether; it would not be right; but you are a good, brave child to have told me, and I am glad to know: You might have done worse, and you might have done better. I didn’t know that a sister of mine could be bullied by that sort of girl. I should like to give that Nesta a piece of my mind. I vow I should.”