people nice. They don't have much trouble to make that clear to you,
Doro, dear."

"Well, of course, you are entitled to your own opinion, but I do wish you
would listen. She sent you a message."

"Sent me a message! It was to you she owed the apology. She has her cases
mixed."

"Tavia, she gave me this card to hand you with the request that you call
upon her on Thursday morning."

Tavia glanced at the card. Then she read the inscription aloud.

"Of all the--nerve!" she exclaimed, seemingly at a total loss to grasp any
other word. "To ask me to call on a handwriting expert! Does she think I
want her services?"

"I was, and am still, just as puzzled as you are, Tavia; but she seemed so
serious. Said you were young, and that perhaps she could help you--"

Tavia seemed to catch her breath. The next moment she had recovered
herself. "I might call--just for fun. Then, again--I might not," she said
indifferently.

"So many queer things contrived to happen," continued Dorothy, noting the
slight agitation her chum betrayed. "The clerk at the jewelry
counter--Miss Allen, the pleasant girl--told me the woman detective, Miss
Dearing, had been discharged."