"Made you buy!" cried Susan.
"That you made me buy—that you insisted on my buying," continued Christian firmly. "Well, I went to Dawson's in the High Street and got the things, and brought them home myself in a big basket. I won't say anything about what I felt when I slipped out in the dark. I paid for them, of course, and Dawson gave me the bill. I didn't think very much about it, and when I was studying my Greek history yesterday I slipped it into the book as a mark."
"You did what?" cried Susan.
"I put the bill into the book without thinking. Well, last night Star asked for the loan of my History of Greece. I told her she could take it, and she found the bill, and she showed it to me to-day. She said, too, that we had better not do what we intended to do, for if we did she would tell. She said that I had done a most dishonorable thing when I bought those things in a shop in the town. She is very angry, and she thinks that you had better know that she is angry. That is really why I am here to-night; otherwise you might have got your basket up the attic stairs without any help from me."
Christian dropped down on an upturned box as she uttered the last words. She folded her hands in her lap and gazed straight before her. The other three girls were silent for nearly a minute; then Janet Bouverie took one of Christian's hands and said:
"What a miserable-looking little thing you are!"
"I am very unhappy," said Christian.
"Oh, don't listen to her now," said Susan. "Really her folly passes belief. The idea of putting that tell-tale bill into a common school-book! I never heard of anything so idiotic in the whole course of my life. Where is it now, Christian? Give it to me this minute."
"I haven't got it," said Christian. "Star wouldn't give it to me."