"What do you mean?"
"Why, that your jacket has gone to the pawn."
"Kitty!" cried Alice, looking at the Irish girl in some alarm, "have you gone mad?"
"No, Alice; but I am dreadfully afraid all the same that it has happened; indeed, there can be no doubt of it."
Kitty laughed again. She often cried when she laughed and now the tears ran down her cheeks.
"Well, this is too funny!" she gasped between her paroxysms of mirth.
"I don't think it funny at all. I think you must have taken leave of your senses. Kitty, please, explain yourself."
"I will try to, Alice. Oh, don't frown at me so horribly, or I shall go off into fits of laughter again. This is the simple truth. I wanted money very, very badly. I could not get it, and Carrie Lewis—"
"Carrie Lewis? Who is she?" asked Alice.
"Oh, don't be so ridiculous, Alice. Of course you know who Carrie Lewis is. She is Elma's sister. She came here to-day."