"Yes, I must be going now!"
Half way across the room she halted, hesitated for a moment, and then finally opening her purse, took from it a fifty dollar bill.
"There, Miriam," she said with a note of relief, "I have been meaning for a long time to pay back that fifty dollars I borrowed from you a few years ago—when I was so hard up for money. I'm ashamed not to have returned it before; and it's just like you not to remind me. There, dear, I've put it on the chiffonier; and now, good-bye!" And she was gone before Miriam could even protest against her action.
For Miriam knew quite as well as did Shirley that there never had been such a loan between them; and rushing out into the hall, she called to the other to come back; but Shirley by this time was well out of hearing.
"She's gone!" Miriam declared forlornly, panting from her fruitless chase.
Shirley's flight did not worry Challoner. He took advantage of Miriam's temporary absence to steal to the chiffonier and to seize the fifty dollar bill. Miriam entered the room in time to see him thrusting it into his pocket, and cried out angrily:—
"Laurie, I wish you to put that back! We are not thieves; it does not belong to us; and I'm going to send it back to Shirley."
Challoner grinned.
"What do you think I am?" he finally asked. "A fool?"
He tried to pass her; she blocked his way, and repeated:—