"Lost it? How? Wasn't that too bad!"
"I should say so," replied Tavia, turning to her memorandum book, as if to dismiss the subject.
"But how did you lose it, Tavia?" persisted the sympathetic Dorothy.
"Oh, I didn't exactly lose it, but I had to spend it for other things," said Tavia with a show of impatience.
"Then I'm just going to divide with you," declared Dorothy, for she knew perfectly well that Tavia was not in the circumstances that she herself enjoyed, surmised that indeed Tavia did have to spend her holiday money for some needed articles.
"Oh, no, thank you," objected Tavia, the color racing into her cheeks, "I suppose I might have done without——"
"Now, you must let me have my way, Tavia," insisted Dorothy, instantly opening her pretty beaded purse to divide its contents.
"But, Doro, dear," faltered Tavia, "you don't understand. It was not for anything for myself——"
"Then all the more reason that you should be reimbursed," insisted Dorothy. "I don't want to know anything about it, but you must let me share with you. Why, what fun would I have giving and buying, with you just looking on?"
So Tavia said no more, but as she accepted the money from her loyal little friend a guilty flush would persist in staining her cheeks, and she avoided Dorothy's wondering blue eyes when she asked: