The moment Maggie closed her room door Rosalind flung her cloak off her shoulders, and, falling on her knees, caught the hem of Maggie’s dress and covered her face with it. “Don’t, Rosalind; get up,” said Miss Oliphant in a tone of disgust. “Oh, Maggie, Maggie, do be merciful! Do forgive me! Don’t send me to prison, Maggie— don’t!” “Get off your knees at once, or I don’t know what I shall do,” replied Maggie. Rosalind sprang to her feet; she crouched up against the door; her eyes were wide open. Maggie came and, faced her. “Oh, don’t!” said Miss Merton with a little shriek, “don’t look at me like that!” She put up her hand to her neck and began to unfasten her coral necklace. She took it off, slipped her bracelets from her arms, took her earrings out and removed her pins. “You can have them all,” she said, holding out the coral; “they are worth a great deal more— a great deal more than the money I— _took!”_ “Lay them down,” said Maggie. “Do you think I could touch that coral? Oh, Rosalind,” she added, a sudden rush of intense feeling coming into her voice, “I pity you! I pity any girl who has so base a soul.” Rosalind began to sob freely. “You don’t know how I was tempted,” she said. “I went through a dreadful time, and you were the cause— you know you were, Maggie. You raised the price of that coral so wickedly, you excited my feelings. I felt as if there was a fiend in me. You did not want the sealskin jacket, but you bid against me and won it. Then I felt mad, and, whatever you had offered for the coral, I should have bidden higher. It was all your fault; it was you who got me into debt. I would not be in the awful, awful plight I am in to-night but for you, Maggie.” “Hush!” said Maggie. The pupils of her eyes dilated curiously; she put her hand before them. “The fruits of my bad half-hours,” she murmured under her breath. After a long pause, she said: “There is some truth in your words, Rosalind; I did help you to get into this false position. I am sorry; and when I tell Miss Heath the whole circumstance— as I must to-morrow— you may be sure I shall not exonerate myself.” “Oh, Maggie, Maggie, you won’t tell Miss Heath! If you do, I am certain to be expelled, and my mother— my mother will die; she is not over strong just now, and this will kill her. You cannot be so cruel as to kill my mother, Maggie Oliphant, particularly when you yourself got me into this.”