Betty was very generous with the subtraction. She was in a generous mood, wanting to give everybody the benefit of the doubt that, with a good deal of a struggle, she had managed to give Georgia. Of course the vindicating of the little freshman was quite the happiest result of the whole affair. It didn't take Betty long to identify the amethyst pendant as the one article which the Blunderbuss had said she couldn't return; and she was at once relieved and disappointed, on going over the stolen jewelry with Miss Ferris, to find that Nita's pin was certainly missing. Of course that left room for the possibility that the Blunderbuss had not taken it, and the next thing to do was to consult Georgia and make sure. Betty waited until after dinner that evening for a chance to see her alone and then, unable to stand the suspense any longer, broke abruptly away from her own friends and detached Georgia from a group of tired and disconsolate freshmen sympathizing over examinations.
"Let's go for a walk all by ourselves," she said.
"No fair, running off to talk secrets," Madeline called after the pair.
"Curiosity killed a cat," Betty chanted gaily back at her, leading the way to the back campus.
"It's awfully nice of you to ask me to come, when so many people want you," said Georgia shyly.
"Oh, no, it's not," protested Betty. "I shall have a whole week with the others after you've gone. Besides, there's something I especially want to talk to you about. Let's go and sit on the bank below the observatory."
They found comfortable seats among the gnarled roots of an old elm, where they could look across at Paradise and down on a bed of gorgeous rhododendrons, over which great moths, more marvelously colored than the flowers, flitted lazily in the twilight. Then Betty plunged into the thick of things.
"You remember the pendant that you wore on your chain the night of the Glee Club concert. You said it was a present. Would you mind telling me who gave it to you? I have good reason for asking."
Georgia flushed a little and made the answer that Betty had hoped for. "The senior Miss Harrison gave it to me last Christmas. I know you and Madeline don't like her, and I don't like her a bit better. But what can you do, Betty, when some one takes a fancy to you? You can't snub her just because she happens to be stupid and unpopular--not if you're a 'Merry Heart,' anyway."