“No, Princess, you are kind as ever, but I must do my own confessing. I feel as if I had no right to continue a member of our Camp Fire after my behavior, when all my life I have been warned against just such recklessness. Why, except for the good fortune I did not deserve, I might have—” but here Gill faltered and stopped. She then moved on ahead and Bettina saw her pause before the group of older women. A moment after they were listening to her story. Half an hour later Bettina joined her in her cabin, in the meantime having introduced the young poet to Mrs. Burton, the Camp Fire guardian, to Miss Patricia Lord, and to her own mother. She discovered Gill sitting on the edge of her bed. “I am to talk over matters with Tante in the morning when we can be alone. Of course she was very kind. Aunt Patricia, however, told me what she likes to call the plain truth. Bettina, do you think it my duty to leave this fairyland as a punishment for my behavior? Perhaps if I remain I shall only get into a worse difficulty! Have you ever in your life met anyone you disliked so instinctively that you felt assured the influence over you could only be for evil? You may think me absurd as you like, but the young man we met by accident this afternoon immediately had that effect upon me. “I trust I may never see him again, in fact I mean to make an effort not to see him. I’ll not come to supper, I do not wish for any. You may give him my share. One thing I do know we ought never to be brought into contact with each other, and yet now he is apt to appear at camp at any moment and I shall be responsible, since you would never have been able to discover him had you been alone!” Suddenly Gill’s chin went up and her color returned. “You don’t think I am cruel really, do you, Bettina, more so than the other girls? I only shot the game because I heard Aunt Patricia say Mrs. Burton required it and there was no chance to buy fresh provisions until the end of the week. However, I don’t believe I shall ever hunt again. Perhaps in any case I had best not spend the winter at Half Moon Lake; after all, I may be happier at home! There are in my character certain faults the Sunrise Camp Fire has not yet found out. We were too busy in France to think of ourselves or of each other.” Bettina smiled. “Why, Gill, what a depressed mood you are in! It is most unlike you. Small wonder you do not like our poet if already he has had this influence upon you! By the way, he is having a beautiful time at this moment with Tante and mother and I don’t believe will ever trouble any of us. It strikes me that he feels entirely superior to girls and requires an older audience to appreciate him. Farewell, of course I’ll bring you your supper. Chitty is not suffering in the least and things will adjust themselves in the morning when the poet shall have disappeared and been forgotten.”