"I want you to know that I have no part in that awful story they are spreading," she said. "I don't believe it, and I—I'd stop it if I could. That's all—I just wanted you to know—and please—please—" She spread out her hands again appealingly. "Please don't let them know that I have been here!"
She turned then and before any one of the others could recover sufficiently from their astonishment to stop her, had run swiftly from the room.
"How she hates those two girls!" cried Sadie.
"And yet she stays with them and lets them bully her," added Nan. "It's beyond me!"
"I wish we could help her," said Jo thoughtfully. "I've a notion she needs help very badly."
"Why in the world do Kate Speed and Lottie pick on us? Why should they say that we're playing silly practical jokes?" demanded Sadie. "It gets me!"
"Goosie!" snapped Jessie. "Don't you know they've never forgiven you for getting this room that they thought they'd already cabbaged?"
Jo would still have put her plan into action. By going to Miss Romaine she would probably stop the contemptible rumor set afoot by Kate and her friends. But this would not be a final victory, as Jessie succeeded in pointing out to the impulsive girl.
"They would say you were hiding behind the skirts of authority, or some such thing," she said. "No, I have a better plan."
When questioned she thus divulged it.