On the way downstairs, Barbara still kept the flower in her hand.  But when she found Peter’s eyes were upon her she deliberately crushed the little rose-bud, then defiantly tossed it away.

CHAPTER XVI

BARBABA’S UNEXPECTED GOOD LUCK

It was the second day after Mrs. Wilson’s dinner when Barbara made up her mind to tell Ruth of her debt to Mrs. Wilson and to ask her friend to lend her the money to relieve her of her obligation.  Bab could endure the situation no longer.  She simply determined to tell Ruth everything, except the part that poor Mollie had played in the original difficulty.  She meant to explain to Ruth that she had needed fifty dollars, that she had intended going to a pawn shop to secure the money, her interview with Mrs. Wilson and her acceptance of the loan offered by the beautiful woman.  She would not tell Ruth, however, why she had suddenly required this sum of money.  Now, Bab knew Ruth would ask her no questions and would grant her request without a moment’s hesitation or loss of faith.  The sympathy between Ruth and Barbara was very deep and real.

It was one thing for Barbara Thurston to decide to appeal to Ruth’s ever-ready generosity, but another thing actually to make her demand.

The two girls lay on Ruth’s bed, resting.  They had been to a dance at the British Embassy the night before.  Mollie and Grace were together in the next room and Harriet was alone.

“Barbara!” exclaimed Ruth suddenly.  “If you could have one wish, that would surely be granted, what would you wish?”

“I would like to have some money in a hurry,” flashed through Bab’s mind, but she was ashamed to make such a speech to Ruth, so she said rather soberly.  “I have so many wishes its hard to single out one.”

“Well what are some of them?” persisted Ruth.  “Do you wish to be rich, or famous, or to write a great book or a play?”

“Oh, yes; I wish all those things, Ruth,” Bab agreed.  “But you were not thinking of such big things.  What little private wish of your own did you have in your mind?  Please don’t wish for things that will take you far away from me,” Bab entreated.

Ruth’s blue eyes were misty when she replied:  “Oh, no, Bab!  I was just going to wish that something would happen so that you and I need never be separated again.  I love you just as though you were my sister, and I am so lonely at home without you and Mollie.  Yet, as soon as our visit to Harriet is over, you must go back to school in Kingsbridge and I have to go home to Chicago.  Who knows when we shall see each other again?  I don’t suppose that our motor trips can go on happening forever.”

Bab pressed Ruth’s hand silently, her own thoughts flying toward the future, when she would perhaps be working her way through college, and teaching school later on, and Ruth would be in society, a beauty and a belle in her Western home.