Dollie blushed as she was reminded so broadly of her sweetheart, and Marion explained to Bert the whole situation.
“He’s a noble fellow! I don’t much care what he did!” cried Bert in admiration; “I’d steal, too, if it was to keep you girls from starving, and I think a man is a cad who says he wouldn’t!”
“Oh, Bert! That isn’t right!” said Marion, firmly. “Of course, we forgive him, but, oh, he shouldn’t have done it! It is awful to steal from any motive! I shall give him every penny of my hundred dollars.”
Dollie drew a long breath, and the tears sprang to her eyes.
“We have not seen him since—since we became suspicious,” she said, very hesitatingly. “Poor fellow! He must be wretched, and yet he knows that we forgive him!”
CHAPTER XIV.
MARION SINGS IN A CONCERT HALL.
Marion was on hand promptly at ten o’clock, and as Otto Vondergrift saw the beautiful face and figure in the broad light of day he chuckled a little over his cleverness in offering her so much money.
“She’ll stick to me now, whereas she might have bolted after the first night if I had offered her less,” he repeated to his friend, the song writer, while Marion waited.
“She is certainly very beautiful,” said Marcus Rosen, as he peered at Marion through the half-open door of a private office.