He was gone half an hour and when he came back he was smiling. "Everything's all fixed," he announced. "Sarah and Shirley are going to march up to the guns like good soldiers to-night, and I'm going to do the talking for them. Sarah, sensibly enough, wants to get it over before dinner, so I've promised to come over right after lunch and sit on your porch so I'll be here no matter how early Hugh gets home. You and I have to bolster up the weak spots in their courage." "I don't see how you ever persuaded Sarah," marveled Rosemary. "I argued and argued, and she wouldn't listen to me." Jack looked very wise. "I used moral suasion," he declared. "Told her if she didn't own up to-night, I'd go to Doctor Hugh and tell him everything myself." "Is that moral suasion?" asked Rosemary doubtfully. "Of course it is," said Jack with confidence. "If it isn't it ought to be. I've never broken a promise yet and I'm mighty glad Sarah didn't make me, but I'll be jiggered if I don't think there are times when it is worse to keep a promise than to break it." A promise "wrongly given"--Doctor Hugh's words came back to Rosemary. Had she given her promise wrongly? Doctor Hugh did not come home till nearly five o'clock and the four solemn young people on the front porch were getting decidedly fidgety before his roadster appeared at the curb and he jumped out and hurried up the walk. He said "Hello" to the four as he passed them and he was surprised, therefore, when he turned from his desk to see them enter the office and advance toward him. "Hugh," said Jack clearly, "I've something to tell you. Sarah really ought to, but she asked me to do it." "Suppose you sit down," said the doctor gravely. Sarah sat down gingerly on a chair near the door, ready for instant flight, and the others ranged themselves near the desk. Jack began with the loss of the ring and told everything that had happened since. He spoke rapidly, but without excitement, and he was not interrupted once. "I am really to blame, as much as anyone," he declared, when he had reached the point where Rosemary had confided in him about the missing ring and her determination to replace it. "I had no business to promise not to tell before I heard what I was not to tell. That's a fool stunt." "Yes, I think it is," agreed Doctor Hugh, but smilingly. "Rosemary thought she had to go on taking care of cranky babies till she could buy another ring. If I'd had any money of my own--and I don't know why I never do--" Jack paused for a moment to consider this new idea--"I would have bought a ring myself and helped her out of the hole." Doctor Hugh listened silently to the remainder of the recital, his eyes studying the four expressive faces before him. "So Rosemary really couldn't tell you what she wanted the money for, because she had promised," finished Jack. "And Sarah was afraid, and so was Shirley."