“Oh!” murmured Tavia, slowly. “It’s not so bad as all _that_. You’re making a mountain out of a molehill.” But Dorothy would not listen. CHAPTER VI SOMETHING OF A MYSTERY Tavia slept her usually sweet, sound sleep that night, despite the strange surroundings of the hotel and the happenings of a busy day; but Dorothy lay for a long time, unable to close her eyes. In the morning, however, she was as deep in slumber as ever her chum was when a knock came on the door of their anteroom. Both girls sat up and said in chorus: “Who’s there?” “It’s jes’ me, Missy,” said the soft voice of the colored maid. “Did one o’ youse young ladies lost somethin’?” “Oh, mercy me, yes!” shouted Tavia, jumping completely out of her bed and running toward the door. “Nonsense, Tavia!” admonished Dorothy, likewise hopping out of bed. “She can’t have found your money.” “Oh! what is it, please?” asked Tavia, opening the door just a trifle. “Has you lost somethin’?” repeated the colored girl. “I lost my handbag in a store yesterday,” said Tavia. “Das it, Missy,” chuckled the maid. “De clark, he axed me to ax yo’ ’bout it. It’s done come back.” “What’s come back?” demanded Dorothy, likewise appearing at the door and in the same dishabille as her friend. “De bag. De clark tol’ me to tell yo’ ladies dat all de money is safe in it, too. Now yo’ kin go back to sleep again. He’s done got de bag in he’s safe;” and the girl went away chuckling. Tavia fell up against the door and stared at Dorothy. “Oh, Doro! Can it be?” she panted. “Oh, Tavia! What luck!” “There’s the telephone! I’m going to call up the office,” and Tavia darted for the instrument on the wall. But there was something the matter with the wires; that was why the clerk had sent the maid to the room. “Then I’m going to dress and go right down and see about it,” Tavia said. “But it’s only six o’clock,” yawned Dorothy. “The maid was right. We should go back to bed.” Her friend scorned the suggestion and she fairly “hopped” into her clothes. “Be sure and powder your nose, dear,” laughed Dorothy. “But I _am_ glad for you, Tavia.” “Bother my nose!” responded her friend, running out of her room and into the corridor. She whisked back again before Dorothy was more than half dressed with the precious bag in her hands. “Oh, it is! it is!” she cried, whirling about Dorothy’s room and her own and the bath and anteroom, in a dervish dance of joy. “Doro! Doro! I’m saved!” “I don’t know whether you are saved or not, dear. But you plainly are delighted.” “Every penny safe.” “Are you sure?” “Oh, yes. I counted. I had to sign a receipt for the clerk, too. He is the _dearest_ man.” “Well, dear, I hope this will be a lesson to you,” Dorothy said. “It will be!” declared the excited Tavia. “Do you know what I am going to do?” “Spend your money more recklessly than ever, I suppose,” sighed her friend.