The boys ran off to “primp,” and what the girls did to make themselves lovely, Libbie said “was a caution!” One after the other they came into Betty’s and Bobby’s room and pirouetted to show their finery.  Ida had been decked out very nicely by her friends, and her outfit did not seem shabby in the least.

But the English girl noted one thing about Betty, and it puzzled her.  The other girls from Shadyside School wore their pieces of jewelry while Betty displayed not a single trinket.  As the other girls were hurrying out to join the boys and descend to the big hall, Ida held Betty back.

“Where is it, Betty?” she asked.  “Don’t you wear it at all?  Are you afraid of losing it again?”

“What do you mean?” asked Betty, her heart pounding suddenly and her eyes growing brighter.  Ida Bellethorne placed her hand upon Betty’s chest, looking at her closely as she asked the question: 

“Didn’t Mrs. Staples give it to you?  That beautiful locket, you know.  Aren’t you allowed to wear it?”

CHAPTER XXIII

Can it be done?

“Dear me!” exclaimed Betty.  “How curious you are.  I am not allowed to wear my diamond earrings that Doctor and Mrs. Guerin gave me, of course.  They are the old-fashioned kind for pierced ears, and would have to be reset, and diamonds are too old for me anyway.  But Uncle Dick lets me wear any thing else I own——­”

“That locket,” questioned Ida.  “That pretty locket.  It did fall out of your bag in the shop, didn’t it, Betty?”

“My goodness!” stammered Betty, “did you find it?”

“I picked it up,” said Ida soberly.  “Mrs. Staples would not let me run after you with it.  But she promised to give it to you when you came and asked for it.”

“She did?  She never——­”

Then Betty hesitated a moment.  She remembered clearly just what had been said in the little neighborhood shop when she and Bobby had called there to get Bobby’s blue over-blouse.

“It’s a fact, I never asked her for it,” she said slowly.  “No, I never.  I just asked her if she had found anything, and she said ‘No.’”

“She would!  That would be like her!” cried Ida Bellethorne.  “She is a person who prides herself upon being exactly honest; and I guess that means barely honest.  Oh, Betty Gordon!”

“Well, now what’s the matter?” asked Betty.

“Did—­did you know you lost it in Mrs. Staples’ shop?”

“No.  I didn’t know where I lost it.  I only thought——­”

“That I might have picked it up and said nothing about it?” demanded Ida Bellethorne.

“Why Ida!  I would not have hurt your feelings by saying anything about it for the world,” said Betty honestly.  “That was why I didn’t tell you.  You see, if you really had known nothing about the locket when I asked you, all the time you would be afraid that I suspected you.  Isn’t that so?”