For a moment the old proud reserve held the girl, but it melted under the tender sympathy in the eyes looking into hers. She drew a long breath. "It seems somehow wrong to talk about it even to you," she said. "Sonia is my sister." "I know, dear, but sisters are not always--sisters," Laura replied, "and you are very much alone in the world. I am more truly your sister--am I not, Olga--your elder sister who loves you and wants to help?" "O yes, yes!" the girl cried. "But I've felt I must not tell _any_ one--even you--and I've crowded it all down in my heart until----" "Until you are worn out with the strain of it all," Laura said as Olga paused. "Now tell me the whole just as if I were your sister in very fact." And Olga told it all, from Sonia's unexpected arrival that September night to the present--of the failure of her efforts to get her sister to do some kind of work, and of Sonia's constant demands for money and clothes. "Do you think she has really tried to get a place in a store, Olga?" "I don't know. She says she has, but I can't feel that she really wants to do anything, or that she will ever find a place as long as I let her stay on with me. Of course I could support her, though it would not be easy, for she is hard on clothes. She doesn't take care of them and she wears them out much faster than I do. She has almost worn out my best shoes already, and my gloves, as well as my hat and suit, and she uses my handkerchiefs and--and everything, just as if they were her own. I can't earn enough to clothe her and keep myself decent." She glanced down at the old serge skirt she wore. "Miss Laura, tell me--what shall I do? Would it be right for me to leave her? The continual fret and worry of it all are wearing me out." "I know it, dear--that is why I felt you must come and talk it all over with me." Olga went on, "It isn't only a matter of money--and clothes, but I have _nothing_ left. If I go out evenings--even across to Lizette's room--she wants to go too, or else she goes off somewhere as soon as I am out of sight, and leaves the baby shut up all alone. That's why I can't go anywhere--not even to the Camp Fire meetings. And, O Miss Laura, I was so happy when I came back from camp--I had so many lovely plans for Camp Fire work! I did mean to be a good Torch Bearer--I _did_!" "I know you did." "And now it's all spoilt. I can't do a single bit of Camp Fire work," she ended sadly. "Olga," Laura's arm was around the girl's shoulders, her voice very low and tender, "you say that now you cannot do a single bit of Camp Fire work?" Olga looked up in surprise. "How can I--when I can't be with the girls at all, nor attend the meetings?"