Esther swallowed a lump in her throat. She had never seen Rose so
jumpy, she agreed. Last night she had gone out for an hour alone. The
look in her eyes when she had come back had frightened Esther. She had
gone at once to her bedroom and locked the door, but her sister had
heard her moving about for hours.

Then, suddenly, Esther's throat swelled and she began to sob. She knew
well enough that she was at the bottom of Wild Rose's worries.

"Where is she now?" asked Kirby gently.

"I don't know. She didn't tell me where she was going.
There's--there's something queer about her. I--I'm afraid."

"What are you afraid of?"

"She's so--so kinda fierce," Esther wailed.

It was impossible to explain, even to this big brown friend of Rose who
looked as though his quiet strength could move mountains. He was a
man. Besides, every instinct in her drove to keep hidden the secret
that some day would tell itself.

Her eyes fell. They rested on the "News" some boarder had tossed on
the table beside which she stood. Her thoughts were of herself and the
plight in which she had become involved. She looked at the big
headlines of the paper and for the moment did not see them. What she
did see was disgrace, the shipwreck of the young life she loved so much.

Her pupils dilated. The words of the headline penetrated to the brain.