Gyp hesitated, in a maddening way. "Well, I suppose it was giving her the handkerchief made her break down and I don't believe she thought I'd come straight out here and tell you girls. And I'm _only_ telling you because I think maybe we can help her. After she'd taken the handkerchief and wiped her nose she took hold of my hand and pressed it hard and told me she hoped I'd never know what loneliness was. And then I asked her if she didn't have anyone and she said no--not a soul in the whole wide world cared whether she lived or died. Isn't that dreadful? And she said she didn't have a home anywhere, just lived in a horrid old boarding house. Well, she was beginning to act more cheerful and I was afraid she was recovering enough to tell me to go on with the scanning, so I got up my nerve and I asked her point-blank if she'd ever had a lover----" "_Gyp Westley_----" screamed Pat. "Well, there wasn't any use beating 'round the bush and I knew we'd want to know and I read once that men were the cause of most heartaches, so I asked her----" "What _did_ she say? Wasn't she furious?" "No--I think she was glad I did. Maybe, if you didn't have any family and lived in a great big boarding house where you couldn't talk to anyone except 'bout the weather and the stew and things, you'd even like to confide in me. She just blushed and looked downright pretty, but dreadfully sad. She said she'd had a very, very dear friend--you could tell she meant a lover--but that it was all past and he had forgotten her. I suppose I should have said to her that it's 'better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,' but I just asked her if he was handsome, which was foolish, because she'd think he was if he was as homely as anything." "And was he?" "She said he was distinguished--a straight nose and a firm chin and black hair with a white streak running straight down through the middle, like Lee's black-and-white setter dog, I guess. Girls, mustn't it be _dreadful_ to have to go on day after day with your heart like a cold stone inside of you and no one to love you and to teach school?" Each girl, with her own life full to brimming with love, looked as though they felt very sorry, indeed, for poor little Miss Gray. "Let's do something to make her happy," suggested Pat. "Do you suppose we could find the man? They must have quarreled and maybe, if he knew----" "There can't be many men with white streaks in their hair and if we get the other girls to help us, perhaps by watching real closely, we can find him." "And I thought, too, we might send her some flowers after a few days without any name or any sign on them where they came from. She'll be dreadfully excited and curious and then in a week or so we can send some more----" "Aren't flowers very expensive?" put in Jerry. Gyp understood her concern; Jerry had very little spending money.