lounges, and the thousand and one things which give one a feeling of
home. Take my advice, Miss Peel, there's no use fighting against the
tide. You'll have to do as others do in the long run, and you may as
well do it at once. That is my plain opinion, and I should not have
given it to you if I had not thought you needed it. Good night."

"No, stop a minute," said Priscilla. Every scrap of color had left her
face, every trace of nervousness her manner. She walked before the two
girls to the door and closed it. "Please stay just for a minute
longer, Miss Day and Miss Marsh, and you too, Miss Banister, if you
will."

She went across the room again, and, opening the top drawer of her
bureau, took out her purse. Out of the purse she took a key. The key
fitted a small padlock and the padlock belonged to her trunk. She
unlocked her empty trunk and opened it.

"There," she said, turning to the girls-- "there," she continued, "you
will be good enough to notice that there are no photographs concealed
in this trunk, no pictures, no prints." She lifted the tray. "Empty,
you see," she added, pointing with her hand to the lower portion of
the trunk-- "nothing here to make my room pretty, and cozy, and
home-like." Then she shut the trunk again and locked it, and going up
to where the three girls stood, gazing at her in bewilderment and some
alarm, she unfastened her purse and turned all its contents into the
palm of her hand.

"Look, Miss Marsh," she said, turning to the girl who had spoken last.
"You may count what is here. One sovereign, one half-sovereign, two or
three shillings, some pence. Would this money go far at Spilman's, do