The only hope she could see was to break into the collection of the man from India, sell some moths, and try to replace them in June.  But in her soul she knew that never would do.  No June ever brought just the things she hoped it would.  If she spent the college money she knew she could not replace it.  If she did not, the only way was to secure a room in the grades and teach a year.  Her work there had been so appreciated that Elnora felt with the recommendation she knew she could get from the superintendent and teachers she could secure a position.  She was sure she could pass the examinations easily.  She had once gone on Saturday, taken them and secured a license for a year before she left the Brushwood school.

She wanted to start to college when the other girls were going.  If she could make the first year alone, she could manage the remainder.  But make that first year herself, she must.  Instead of selling any of her collection, she must hunt as she never before had hunted and find a Yellow Emperor.  She had to have it, that was all.  Also, she had to have those dresses.  She thought of Wesley and dismissed it.  She thought of the Bird Woman, and knew she could not tell her.  She thought of every way in which she ever had hoped to earn money and realized that with the play, committee meetings, practising, and final examinations she scarcely had time to live, much less to do more than the work required for her pictures and gifts.  Again Elnora was in trouble, and this time it seemed the worst of all.

It was dark when she arose and went home.

“Mother,” she said, “I have a piece of news that is decidedly not cheerful.”

“Then keep it to yourself!” said Mrs. Comstock.  “I think I have enough to bear without a great girl like you piling trouble on me.”

“My money is all gone!” said Elnora.

“Well, did you think it would last forever?  It’s been a marvel to me that it’s held out as well as it has, the way you’ve dressed and gone.”

“I don’t think I’ve spent any that I was not compelled to,” said Elnora.  “I’ve dressed on just as little as I possibly could to keep going.  I am heartsick.  I thought I had over fifty dollars to put me through Commencement, but they tell me it is all gone.”

“Fifty dollars!  To put you through Commencement!  What on earth are you proposing to do?”

“The same as the rest of them, in the very cheapest way possible.”

“And what might that be?”

Elnora omitted the photographs, the gifts and the play.  She told only of the sermon, graduation exercises, and the ball.

“Well, I wouldn’t trouble myself over that,” sniffed Mrs. Comstock.  “If you want to go to a sermon, put on the dress you always use for meeting.  If you need white for the exercises wear the new dress you got last spring.  As for the ball, the best thing for you to do is to stay a mile away from such folly.  In my opinion you’d best bring home your books, and quit right now.  You can’t be fixed like the rest of them, don’t be so foolish as to run into it.  Just stay here and let these last few days go.  You can’t learn enough more to be of any account.”