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226 rose rapidly. The screen slammed shut, throwing the creature on the floor before them. Instantly Mrs. Comstock's foot crushed it. Elnora stepped back. Excepting the red mark, her face was very white. "That was the last moth I needed," she said, "to complete a collection worth three hundred dollars. You've ruined it before my eyes!" "Moth!" cried Mrs. Comstock. "You say that because you are mad. Moths have big wings. I know a moth!" "I've kept things from you," said Elnora, "because I didn't dare confide in you. You had no sympathy with me. But you know I never told you untruths in all my life." "It's no moth!" reiterated Mrs. Comstock. "It is!" cried Elnora. "It's just out of a case in the ground. Its wings take two or three hours to expand and harden." "If I had known it was a moth" Mrs. Comstock wavered. "You did know! I told you! I begged you to stop! It meant just three hundred dollars to me." "Bah! Three hundred fiddlesticks!" sneered Mrs. Comstock. "They are what have paid for books, tuition, and clothes for the last four years. They are what I could have started on to college. You've crushed the last one I needed before my face. You never have made any pretence of loving me. At last I'll be equally frank with