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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World, by
+Margaret Vandercook
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World
+
+
+Author: Margaret Vandercook
+
+
+
+Release Date: October 10, 2007  [eBook #22938]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE OUTSIDE
+WORLD***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Al Haines
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 22938-h.htm or 22938-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/9/3/22938/22938-h/22938-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/9/3/22938/22938-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Cover artwork]
+
+
+THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD
+
+by
+
+MARGARET VANDERCOOK
+
+Author of "The Ranch Girls" Series, "The Red
+  Cross Girls" Series, etc.
+
+Illustrated
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: "Esther Crippen, that is the loveliest song in the
+world!"]
+
+
+
+Philadelphia
+The John C. Winston Co.
+Publishers
+
+Copyright 1914, by
+The John C. Winston Company
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+     I. "DO YOU REMEMBER ME?"
+    II. BETTY'S KNIGHT
+   III. HER PENSION
+    IV. TEMPTATION
+     V. THE WAY OF THE WILFUL
+    VI. ESTHER'S ROOM
+   VII. THE THREAT
+  VIII. PREPARATIONS FOB THE HOLIDAYS
+    IX. THE CASTLE OF LIFE
+     X. THE RECOGNITION
+    XI. SUNRISE CABIN AGAIN
+   XII. "LIFE'S LITTLE IRONIES"
+  XIII. THE INVALIDS
+   XIV. "WHICH COMES LIKE A BENEDICTION"
+    XV. SECRETS
+   XVI. THE LAW OF THE FIRE
+  XVII. A FIGURE IN THE NIGHT
+ XVIII. UNCERTAINTY
+   XIX. AN UNSPOKEN POSSIBILITY
+    XX. THE BEGINNING OF LIGHT
+   XXI. BETTY FINDS OUT
+  XXII. SUNRISE CABIN
+ XXIII. FAREWELLS
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"ESTHER CRIPPEN, THAT IS THE LOVELIEST SONG
+  IN THE WORLD!" . . . . . . _Frontispiece_
+
+"THERE ISN'T ANYTHING MUCH TO TELL"
+
+THE PROFESSOR HAD TO WIPE HIS GLASSES
+
+"I WON'T INTERFERE WITH YOUR DESTINATION"
+
+
+
+
+The Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+"DO YOU REMEMBER ME?"
+
+Walking slowly down a broad stairway, a girl carried three old silver
+candlesticks in her hands.  And although the hallway was in
+semi-darkness, the candles had not yet been lighted.  It was a cold
+November afternoon and the great house was chill and silent.
+
+Entering the drawing room, she placed the candles upon the mantelpiece.
+Her breath was like a small gray cloud before her; and her dress, too,
+was the color of the mist and soft and clinging.
+
+"Work, health and love," she murmured quietly, striking a match and
+watching the candles flicker and flare until finally they burned with a
+steady glow.  "If one has these three things in life as I have, what
+else is worth worrying over?"  Then the sigh that came in answer to her
+own question almost extinguished the candle flames.
+
+"There are bills and boarders of course--too many of the first and at
+present none of the second," she added with a kind of whimsical smile.
+"But, oh dear, what a trying Thanksgiving day this has been, when even
+the Camp Fire ideals won't comfort me!  Dick 'way off in Germany, Polly
+and Esther studying in New York and me face to face with my failure to
+save the old house.  It is not worth while pretending; the house must
+be sold and mother and I shall have to find some other place to live.
+In the morning I will go and tell Judge Maynard that I give up."
+
+Sadly Betty Ashton glanced about the familiar room.  The portraits of
+her New England ancestors appeared to gaze coldly and reproachfully
+down upon her.  They had not been of the stuff of which failures are
+made.  Her grand piano was closed and dusty, the window blinds were
+partly pulled down, and although a fire was laid in the grate, it was
+not burning.  Dust, cold and an unaccustomed atmosphere of neglect
+enveloped everything.
+
+With a lifting of her head and a tightening of her lips that gave her
+face a new expression, the girl suddenly pulled open a table drawer and
+began fiercely to polish the top of the piano while she talked.
+
+"There is no reason why I should allow this place to look so dismal
+just because things have gone wrong with my efforts to keep boarders
+and continue my work at school.  As no one is coming to see me I can't
+afford a fire, but I'll open the piano and place Esther's song, 'The
+Soul's Desire,' on the music rack, just as though she were at home to
+sing it for me.  Dick's dull old books shall lie here on the table
+where he used to leave them, near this red rose that John Everett
+brought me this morning.  Somehow the rose makes me think of Polly.  It
+is so radiant.  How curious that certain persons suggest certain
+colors!  Now Polly is often pale as a ghost, and yet red always makes
+me recall her."
+
+A few moments afterwards and Betty moved toward the front window and
+stood there staring out into the street, too deep in thought to be
+actually conscious of what she was doing.
+
+She had changed in the past six months of struggle with poverty and
+work beyond her strength.  There were shadows under her gray eyes and
+worried lines about the corners of her mouth.  Instead of being slim as
+formerly, she was undeniably so thin that even the folds of her
+delicate crepe dress could not wholly disguise it.
+
+It was not that Mrs. Ashton and Betty had spent this lonely day in
+their old home, because their former friends had neglected them.
+Indeed, they had had invitations to Thanksgiving dinners from half a
+dozen sources.  But Mrs. Ashton had not been well in several months and
+was today too ill for her daughter to leave her.  The two women were
+now entirely alone in the house.  One by one their boarders had
+deserted them, and the previous week they had even felt compelled to
+give up the old cook, who had been in the service of the Ashton family
+for twenty years.
+
+At first Betty saw nothing to attract her attention in the street
+outside--not a single passer-by.  It was odd how quiet and cold the
+world seemed with her mother asleep in one of the far-away rooms
+upstairs and other persons evidently too much interested in indoor
+amusements to care for wandering through the dull town.
+
+In another instant, however, the girl's attention was caught by the
+appearance of a figure which seemed to spring up suddenly out of
+nowhere and to stand gazing intently toward the Ashton house.  It was
+almost dark, and yet Betty could distinguish a young man, roughly
+dressed, wearing no overcoat, with his coat collar turned up and a cap
+pulled down over his eyes.  Without being frightened, she was curious
+and interested.  Why should the man behave so queerly?  He now walked
+past the house and then turned and came back, not once but several
+times.  Evidently he had not observed the girl at the window.  At last
+however he gave up, and Betty believed that she saw him disappear
+behind the closed cottage of the O'Neills.  No longer entertained, she
+prepared to leave the drawing room.  It was too chilly to remain there
+any longer.  Moreover, studying the familiar objects she had loved so
+long only made the thought of their surrender more painful.  Betty once
+more faced her three candles.
+
+  "Be strong as the fagots are sturdy;
+  Be pure in your deepest desire;
+  Be true to the truth that is in you;"
+
+
+"And--follow the law of the fire," she repeated with a catch in her
+breath.  Then with greater strength and resolution in her face she blew
+out two of the candles, and picking up the third, started on her way
+upstairs.
+
+The next moment there came a quick, muffled ring at the front door bell.
+
+The girl hesitated; yet there was no one else in the house to answer
+the bell, and only a friend, she thought, could come at this hour.
+Shading her light from the wind with one hand she pulled open the door
+with the other, already smiling with pleasure at the idea of thus
+ending her loneliness.
+
+Close against the door she discovered the young man whom she had seen
+only a few moments before in the street.
+
+He did not speak nor move immediately.
+
+"What do you wish?" Betty demanded a trifle impatiently.  The fellow
+had both fists rammed deep into his pockets and had not the courtesy to
+remove his hat.  With a slight sense of uneasiness, Betty thought of
+closing the door.  The unexpected visitor kept edging closer toward her
+and was apparently fumbling for something in his coat.
+
+"Please tell me what it is you want at once," the girl repeated almost
+angrily.  "This is Mrs. Ashton's house if you are looking for it.  My
+mother and I are entirely alone."  Having made this speech Betty
+instantly recognized its stupidity and regretted it.
+
+However the young man had at last succeeded in removing a small oblong
+package from his pocket, which he silently thrust toward her.  On the
+wrapper in big letters, such as a child might have written, the girl
+was able to decipher her own name.  But while she was puzzling over it,
+and before she could thank the messenger, he had hurried off.
+
+Betty set her candle down on the lowest of the front steps and kneeling
+before it rapidly undid her parcel.  Inside the paper she discovered a
+crudely hand-carved wooden box, and opening the lid, a blank sheet of
+folded white paper.
+
+She shook the paper.  Had some one sent her a Thanksgiving present or
+was she being made the victim of a joke?  But from between the blank
+sheets something slowly fluttered to her feet.  And picking it up with
+a little cry of surprise Betty saw a crisp new ten dollar bill.
+
+Immediately her cheeks turned scarlet and her eyes filled with
+indignant tears.  Only by an effort of will could the tears be kept
+from falling.  Did any one of her friends consider her so
+poverty-stricken that it was necessary to send her money in this
+anonymous fashion?
+
+Scarcely waiting to think, Betty rushed out of the house and down the
+old paved brick walk out into the street.  For there might be a bare
+chance that the messenger was not yet out of sight.  Sure enough, there
+he was still loitering on the corner about half a block away.
+Bareheaded, and in her thin dress, with the money in her hand, the girl
+ran forward.  And actually as she reached the young man, she caught him
+fast by the sleeve.
+
+"Please, you must tell me who sent me this money or else take it back
+at once and say that though I am very much obliged I cannot receive a
+gift delivered in this secret fashion."
+
+The two young people were standing near an electric light so that they
+could now see each other plainly.  Betty observed a tall, overgrown boy
+with thin, straight features and clear hazel eyes, and now that his hat
+was removed, a mass of curly dark hair, which had been vainly smoothed
+down.
+
+"I can't take the money back, since it belongs to you," the young man
+answered awkwardly.
+
+Inside her Betty heard a small voice whispering: "If it only really
+did!"  For the ten dollars would buy Christmas presents for her mother,
+for Polly and Esther and others of her friends.  Nevertheless she shook
+her head.
+
+"The money cannot be mine and so you must return it."  Then finding
+that her insistence was failing to have any effect, she dropped the
+money on the ground at the young fellow's feet and walked away.
+
+"But, Miss Ashton," the stranger's voice argued, "please believe me
+when I say that this money is yours.  Oh, of course I don't mean this
+special ten dollar bill; for yours was spent nearly a year ago.  But at
+least the money represents the same amount."
+
+Betty paused and again faced the speaker.  There was sincerity in his
+tone--a determined appeal.  But what on earth could he be talking
+about?  He looked perfectly rational, although his statement was so
+extraordinary.
+
+"You don't recognize me and I am truly glad," the young man went on.
+"But can't you recall once having befriended a fellow when instead you
+ought to have sent him to jail?  He did not deserve your kindness then.
+He was actually trying to steal from you the money which you afterwards
+gave him of your own free will.  But he has tried since to be honest."
+
+He ceased abruptly.  For Betty's eyes were shining and she was
+thrusting her little cold hand into his big one.
+
+"You're not!" she exclaimed.
+
+"Yes I am," the boy returned.
+
+"Anthony Graham, Nan's brother?" Betty laughed happily.  "Then please
+give me back the money I refused.  I did not understand that you were
+returning the loan.  Of course I understand how you feel about it.  And
+do come back and into the house with me.  I so want you to tell me all
+about yourself.  I hope you have had splendid luck."
+
+The young man's shabby appearance did not suggest sudden riches.
+Nevertheless he smiled.
+
+For more than ever did Betty Ashton appear to him like the Princess of
+his dreams.  Only once before had he met her face to face.  And yet the
+vision had never left him.  He could still see the picture of a girl
+moving toward him, her face filled with shame--for him--and her eyes
+downcast; and thrusting into his clenched fist, which had so lately
+been raised to injure her, the money which had given him the desired
+opportunity for getting away from his old associations and beginning
+again.
+
+Enter her home and tell her of his struggle!  Anthony felt far more
+like kneeling in the dust at her feet.  Yet being a boy he could only
+blush and stammer without words to voice his gratitude.
+
+Betty was beginning to shiver.  "Please come, I am so lonely," she
+urged.  "I have had the horridest kind of a Thanksgiving day.  Only a
+little while ago I was having a hard time trying to remember the things
+that I have to be thankful for."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+BETTY'S KNIGHT
+
+The drawing room fire was soon
+crackling.  "It is so nice to feel
+I have the privilege of lighting it;
+I have been dying to for the past hour,
+but didn't think I could afford it without
+company," Betty confided, blowing at the
+flames.  "Do please get some chairs and
+let us draw up quite close.  It is so much
+pleasanter to talk that way."
+
+Yet Anthony Graham only stared without
+moving.  To think of a Princess speaking
+of not being able to afford so inexpensive a
+luxury as a fire.  Suddenly the young man
+longed to be able immediately to chop
+down an entire forest of trees and lay it as
+a thank offering before her.  Of course his
+sister Nan had written him of Mr. Ashton's
+death and of the change in the family
+fortunes, but to associate real poverty with
+his conception of Betty was impossible.
+Glancing uneasily about the great room it
+was good to see how beautiful it still
+looked, how perfect a setting for its young
+mistress.  So at least they were able to keep
+their handsome home.
+
+To the young man Betty Ashton now
+appeared more beautiful than his former
+impression of her.  For on the day of their
+original meeting she had worn a fur coat
+and a cap covering her hair and a portion
+of her face.  But now the three Camp
+Fire candles were once more burning,
+forming a kind of shining background for the
+girl's figure.  Her hair was a deep red
+brown, with bronze tones, the colors in the
+autumn woods.  There was no longer any
+sign of pallor or weariness in her cheeks,
+for pleasure and excitement had
+reawakened the old Betty.
+
+"Do sit down," she urged again.  "I
+want to hear all about you."
+
+Then, coming to his senses, Anthony
+managed to drag two comfortable chairs
+before the blaze.
+
+"There isn't anything much to tell,"
+he began shyly.  "Only after you gave me
+that money I just started walking farther
+and farther away from Woodford.  Why,
+it seemed to me that I didn't ever want to
+stop, for that would give me a chance to
+realize what I had done.  And I didn't
+stop, either, until I was too dead tired to
+go on.  But by that time I had come to
+another town and it must have been pretty
+late, because the main street was empty.
+I was passing along close to the wall of a
+building when I saw that an office door had
+been left open.  It was pretty cold, so I
+peeped in.  The room was dark and there
+was nobody about, so creeping inside I
+lay down on the floor and went to sleep."  The
+boy stopped, but his listener was leaning
+forward with her hands clasped and her
+lips parted with eagerness.
+
+[Illustration: "There isn't anything much to tell"]
+
+"Do go on and tell me every detail.  It
+sounds just like a story," she entreated.
+
+"When I woke up it was daylight and
+I found that I had landed in a dusty,
+untidy place, littered with old books and
+papers," he continued.  "A small stove in
+the corner was choked up with ashes.  I
+can't tell exactly why, but the first thing
+I did that morning was to scrape out those
+ashes, and then I found some sticks and
+coals and built a fresh fire."  Anthony
+flashed a glance at Betty out of his shy,
+almost frightened blue eyes.  "I guess I
+was feeling kind of well disposed toward
+fires just then, camp fires anyhow.  Then
+I was thinking that I would like to pay for
+my night's lodging in some way.  I fell to
+brushing out the room, so that when the
+young man came down later he would find
+his office cleaned up.  Seemed like all of a
+sudden, after what had happened between
+you and me, that I wanted to work and
+pay my own way.  I had never before been
+anything but a loafer."
+
+"But you couldn't have known that the
+office belonged to a young man unless you
+waited there until after he came in!"
+Betty exclaimed.
+
+Anthony laughed.  "Oh, yes, I waited
+all right and I have been in that same
+office more or less ever since, until I came
+home to Woodford the day before yesterday.
+Of course I meant to clear out as
+soon as I had finished, but while I was
+working I heard a quiet chuckle behind me,
+and swinging around, there stood Mr. Andrews!"
+
+"But who was or is this Mr. Andrews?"
+Betty asked impatiently, too interested to
+be particularly polite.
+
+"My next best friend, after you," the
+young fellow answered.  "Why, I think I
+can remember even now his very first
+words to me: 'Hello,' he said, 'why are
+you doing me such a good turn?'  'Because
+you have just done me one.  I slept all
+night in your office,' I answered.  He
+didn't seem surprised and I thought that
+rather funny.  But afterwards I learned
+that he had been a poor boy himself and
+had slept in all sorts of queer places.
+He is still poor enough, goodness knows,
+but he has graduated in law and set
+up an office.  He will succeed some
+day, sure as faith.  You can bet on him."
+
+Betty bit her lips, her eyes dancing with
+amusement and curiosity.  Actually her
+visitor was becoming so much in earnest
+over his friend that he was forgetting to
+be afraid of her.
+
+"But what about you and your success?"
+she demanded.
+
+The young man flushed, moving uncomfortably
+in his chair, as though yearning to
+get away from his questioner, and yet not
+knowing exactly how.
+
+"Success, _my_ success?  I haven't yet
+used that word in connection with myself.
+I have just managed to keep on working,
+that's about all.  Mr. Andrews let me
+continue sleeping in his office after I told him
+my story and cleaning it to pay for my
+lodging.  Then by getting up early enough
+I arranged to take care of a few others for
+money and to run errands now and then.
+I read in between times."
+
+"Read?  Read what?" Betty inquired
+inexorably, half smiling and half frowning
+at her own persistence.  For somehow in
+their half hour's talk together she had seen
+something in Anthony Graham that made
+her guess that the young man had worked
+harder and dreamed better in this past
+year than he was willing to acknowledge to her.
+
+But Anthony got up from his chair and
+began deliberately backing toward the door.
+He seemed suddenly to have became more
+awkward and self-conscious.  "I read the
+law books, as there wasn't anything else to
+read.  And I was determined to get more
+education so that in the future Nan need
+not be ashamed of me.  Afterwards I
+went to night school and----"
+
+"So you have made up your mind to be
+a lawyer yourself some day."  Betty sighed
+with satisfaction.  How very like a book
+his confession sounded!  She wanted to
+get more information from her visitor and
+yet at the same time longed to rush upstairs
+and commence a letter to Polly O'Neill at
+once.  Wouldn't Polly be interested?  For
+she had predicted on the day of their first
+meeting that the young man would either
+turn out to be absolutely no good, or else
+(and here Betty blushed, recalling the
+prophecy) "Remain your faithful knight to
+the end of the chapter."
+
+"But why did you come back to Woodford
+if this Mr. Andrews was befriending
+you and giving you a chance?" she
+inquired, fearing that her illusion might now
+be shattered.
+
+The young man did not reply at once.
+
+And he scowled until Betty had an uncomfortable
+recollection of the expression which
+she had seen on his face the day of his
+attack upon Polly and her.
+
+Then after moving a few steps nearer the
+fire so that he and the girl were once more
+facing each other, Betty could see that
+his scowl had been due to embarrassment
+and not anger.
+
+"You are awfully good to be willing to
+listen to so long a tale of a ne'er-do-well,"
+he returned.  "I came back to
+Woodford because I was determined to
+make good in my own town.  A fellow that
+can't trust himself in the face of
+temptations isn't worth being trusted.  I'm going
+back to Mr. Andrews later, perhaps, but
+this winter I am to stick right here in
+Woodford and live down my bad name if
+I can.  Judge Maynard says he will give
+me the same kind of a chance that
+Mr. Andrews did, if I am worth it.  And I
+shall be able to see Nan and the others now
+and then.  It didn't seem fair for me to be
+leaving all the family troubles to a girl."
+
+Involuntarily Betty clapped her hands.
+She had not intended to express her
+emotion openly, but so pleased was she with
+Anthony's reply that she couldn't help it.
+The next moment she felt a little ashamed
+of her enthusiasm.
+
+"Oh, Nan is equal to almost anything;
+we consider her the greatest success in our
+Camp Fire club," Betty protested.  "Nan
+is studying domestic science at the High
+School and intends teaching it some day,
+so she will make you awfully comfortable
+at home."
+
+The young man put out his hand.
+"Good-bye," he said.  "I never dreamed
+I would be brave enough to ask you to
+shake hands with me for a good many
+years yet.  But since you have been kind
+enough----"
+
+"To ask you ten thousand questions,"
+Betty laughed, rising and putting out
+both hands with a friendly gesture, and
+then moving toward the door with her
+caller.
+
+"I am not going to be able to live at
+home, however," Anthony concluded.  "It
+is too far to our little place to get into
+town early enough for my work and to
+be here in the evenings for the night school.
+I've got to find a room somewhere.  I
+oughtn't to kick because nobody seems
+crazy to let me stay in their house.  I
+did leave a pretty poor reputation behind
+me around here and I've got to _show_
+people first that I mean to behave differently.
+I guess I'll strike better luck later."
+
+Although Betty was extremely
+sympathetic, she did not answer at once.
+For a sudden surprising understanding had
+come to her.  How difficult it must be for
+any one to have to go about telling his
+acquaintances of his reformation before
+having the chance to prove it.  Then an
+almost appealing expression crept into her
+face, making her cheeks flush hotly and
+her lashes droop.  Her old friends would
+have recognized the look.  For it was the
+one that she most often wore when she
+desired to do another person a kindness
+and feared she might not be allowed.
+
+"Couldn't you, won't you come here
+and have a room with us?" she asked
+unexpectedly.  "We have such heaps of
+rooms in this old house and now mother
+and I are here alone, we really would like
+to have you for protection.  And if you
+don't like to accept with just my
+invitation, will you come in again tomorrow
+or next day?  I am sure mother will wish
+to ask you too."
+
+Anthony Graham had had rather a rough
+time always.  He had a peculiar disposition,
+and all his life probably liked only a
+few people very deeply.  His wasted
+youth--nearly twenty years of idling rather than
+study or work--and his mixed parentage--the
+Italian peasant mother and his New
+England father--would make his struggle
+in the world a long and an uphill one even
+if he should finally succeed.  Among the
+first things he meant to learn was not to
+show his emotions too easily, to hide his
+feelings whenever he could, so that he
+might learn to take without apparent
+flinching the hard knocks that life was
+sure to send.  He had been preparing
+himself for the unkindnesses.  Now at
+Betty's words he felt a lump forming in
+his throat and had a terrified moment of
+believing that he was about to cry like a
+girl.  For could it be possible that any
+human being could so forgive one's sins
+as almost to forget them?  Yet here was
+Betty Ashton asking him to stay in her
+home to protect her mother and herself
+when his only other meeting had been his
+effort to rob her.
+
+Anthony set his teeth.  "I can't live in
+so grand a house as this.  I couldn't afford
+it," he replied huskily.
+
+It was on the tip of Betty's tongue to
+protest that she had never dreamed of
+Anthony's paying anything.  For Betty
+Ashton, whatever the degree of her poverty,
+could never fail in generosity, since
+generosity is a matter not of the pocketbook
+but of the spirit.  However, all of a sudden
+she appreciated that the young man had
+quite as much right to his self-respect as
+she had to hers.
+
+"Even the little will be a help to mother
+and me," she returned more humbly than
+any one else had ever before heard her speak.
+
+"But perhaps I could be useful.  Maybe
+you haven't so many servants as you once
+had----"
+
+Anthony stopped, for Betty's expression
+had changed so completely.  Of course
+she had already repented of her offer.
+
+"We have no servants and you could
+help a great deal," she answered.  And
+then without any pretense of concealing
+them, she let two tears slide down her
+face.  "It is only that I had forgotten
+for the moment that we are not going to
+be able to stay in our house much longer.
+We can't afford to keep it for ourselves
+and I haven't been a success with having
+boarders.  Still it may be some time before
+we can rent or sell it, and if you will stay
+here until then----"
+
+Betty winced, for her visitor had this
+time clasped her hand until the pressure
+of its hard surface hurt.
+
+"You know it would be the greatest
+thing that ever happened for me to be
+allowed to stay here a week," he added.
+
+And Betty laughed.  "Then stay."
+
+As she opened the front door another
+visitor stood waiting on the outside.  He
+was almost as unexpected as Anthony
+Graham.  For it was Herr Crippen, the
+German music professor and Esther's father.
+
+"What on earth could he want?" Betty
+thought irritably.  She was beginning to
+feel anxious to get upstairs to her mother
+again.  For in spite of the fact that she
+now believed that she had a real affection
+for Esther, she had never been able to
+recover from her first prejudice for this
+shabby, hesitating man.  Then his manner
+toward her was always so apologetic.  Why
+on earth should it be?  She was always
+perfectly polite to him.  What a queer
+combination of Thanksgiving visitors she
+was having!
+
+"Gnädiges Fräulein," he began.  And
+Betty ushered him into the drawing room.
+For perhaps he was bringing her news of Esther.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+HER PENSION
+
+"Good luck never rains but it pours, as well as bad luck, mother,"
+Betty Ashton said one morning nearly a week later.  She had just put
+down a big tray of breakfast on a small table before Mrs. Ashton and
+now seated herself on the opposite side.
+
+Mrs. Ashton sighed.  "If your good luck storm has any reference to us,
+Betty dear, I am sure I don't get your point of view.  For if anything
+but misfortune has followed our footsteps since your father's death I
+am sure I should like to hear what it is."  And Mrs. Ashton shivered,
+drawing her light woolen shawl closer about her shoulders.
+
+There are some persons in this world whom troubles brace.  After the
+first shock of a sorrow or calamity has passed they stand reinforced
+with new strength and new courage.  These are the world's successful
+people.  For after a while, ill luck, finding that it can never down a
+really valiant spirit, grows weary and leaves it alone.  Then the good
+things have their turn--health, better and more admiring friends, fame,
+money, love.  Whatever the struggle has been made for, if it has been
+sufficiently brave and persistent, the reward is sure.  But there are
+other men and women, or girls and boys, for age makes no difference,
+who go down like wilted flowers in the teeth of the first storm.  And
+on them life is apt to trample, misfortunes to pile up.
+
+Mrs. Ashton was one of these women.  She had made things doubly hard
+for Betty and Dick.  Indeed, except for his sister, Richard Ashton
+would never have had the strength of purpose to sail for Germany to
+complete his medical studies.  He would simply have surrendered and
+commenced his practice of medicine in Woodford without being properly
+equipped for perhaps the greatest of all the professions--the struggle
+to conquer disease.  Yet somehow Betty had had a clearer vision than
+can be expected of most girls of her age.  In a vague way she had
+understood that it is oftentimes wiser to make a present sacrifice for
+some greater future gain.  So she had persuaded Dick to use the little
+money that he had for his work, assuring him that she and her mother
+could get on perfectly well together at home.  And with half a dozen
+summer boarders at the time of his leaving, it did look to Dick as
+though her confidence was not misplaced.
+
+Now in answer to her mother's speech Betty said nothing at first.  So
+that several tears sliding down Mrs. Ashton's cheeks watered her hot
+buttered toast.
+
+"I am sure I never expected to live to see this day, my dear, when you
+would have to cook your own breakfast and mine before you could leave
+for school," she murmured.  "Why, I never thought that you would have
+to turn over your hand even to look after yourself.  Until you
+developed that Camp Fire enthusiasm you had not been taught a single
+useful thing.  After all, perhaps it might have been better for you if
+I had never been your mother, if----"
+
+Betty laughed teasingly.  "My dear Mrs. Ashton, you talk as if you
+could have avoided that affliction!  You could not very well have
+helped being my mother, could you?  You did not deliberately choose me
+out from a lot of girls.  Because if you did, I should have very little
+respect for your good judgment.  Think, if you might have selected
+either Polly or Esther!  Why, then you would be sure to be rich again
+some day.  For one of them would act so marvelously that she would be
+able to cast laurels at your feet, while the other would sing you back
+to fortune.  But as it is, you will just have to put up with poor me
+until Dick gets his chance.  Now do eat your breakfast while I relate
+the details of our good luck storm.  In the first place, we are not
+going to have to give up our beloved house.  At least not yet, and
+perhaps never if our German-American Pension plan turns out
+satisfactorily."
+
+Betty drank a swallow of coffee, hardly appreciating what she was
+doing, so deep was her absorption in their affairs.
+
+"Honestly, mother, I should never have dreamed of being so interested
+in this plan of Rose's and Miss McMurtry's for us, if it had not been
+for Dick's letters.  But if German ladies can keep successful pensions,
+why not Americans?  Remember what a funny lot of people Dick has
+described--the fat widow with the two musical daughters.  I hope one of
+them won't set her cap for Dick, he loves music so dearly.  Then you
+know the young boy student who was nearly starving when Dick rescued
+him, and the old Baron who wears a wig, and the half dozen others?  But
+no matter how queer and funny they may be, they can be no more so than
+our pensioners.  There is Miss McMurtry herself and Anthony Graham, and
+Dr. Barton moving into town to have an office in our old library.  I
+wonder sometimes if he and Rose are still friends.  They had a
+disagreement once out at the cabin and she just speaks to him since."
+
+Then Betty Ashton hesitated and devoted herself to finishing her
+breakfast.
+
+"I am sure I don't understand why you fail to mention Herr Crippen,
+child, who is to have a room here with us and teach his pupils in our
+big drawing room.  I am glad he has been so successful with his music
+pupils that he is able to give Esther the advantage of studying in New
+York.  I wish you did not have such a ridiculous prejudice against him.
+Indeed, my dear, I have a very strong reason for insisting that you be
+kind to him.  He is Esther's father and----"
+
+Mrs. Ashton spoke more firmly than was usual with her.
+
+But Betty shrugged her shoulders imperceptibly.  "Oh, of course I am
+glad enough to have the Professor here and I have never said I did not
+like him.  But I am specially happy that Edith Norton's family has
+moved away so she is to have a room with us.  I am kind of lonely
+without Polly and Esther, and somehow Edith,"----Betty broke off
+abruptly.  Not even to her mother did she feel like mentioning the fact
+that Edith did not seem to be turning out quite so well as the other
+Sunrise Camp Fire girls.
+
+With a hurried movement she next picked up the breakfast tray,
+exclaiming:
+
+"Thank heavens we are not going to have to give our lodgers anything
+but their rooms and that Martha is coming back to do our cooking and
+the cleaning.  Good old soul to offer to do it without pay.  She said
+that she could not bear living anywhere except with us and that she had
+enough of father's money stored away in bank not to need any more.  But
+we could not have had her work without pay."  Betty kissed her mother
+lightly on the forehead.  "If any one else turns up today and wishes a
+room, just refer them to me.  I'm afraid I won't leave us a bed to
+sleep in.  I am getting so anxious to surprise Dick by really earning a
+lot of money."
+
+"Well, don't rent the back room that Esther used to have, Betty.  You
+may move into it yourself some day if you like, but I would rather not
+have a stranger occupy it.  I----"
+
+"What on earth is queer about that room?" Betty interrupted.  "I have
+not time to listen now, but you _must_ tell me.  You talk as though it
+were a kind of Bluebeard's Chamber of Horrors.  Yet I don't suppose you
+would put me in it if I were likely to have my head cut off in
+consequence.  Good-bye, dear."  And Betty fled out into the hall,
+realizing that it must be almost school time.
+
+The door of Esther's old room happened by accident to be standing open,
+and still holding on to her tray, Betty paused before it for a few
+moments.  She was not thinking of a possible mystery or secret in
+connection with the room, only wondering if Esther and Polly were to be
+at home for the Christmas holidays.  They both wanted to come, she
+thought.  But Esther was not sure of being able to afford it and Polly
+was uncertain of whether she wished to stay in her stepfather's house
+at a time when her stepbrother, Frank Wharton, whom she disliked so
+much, should also be at home for his holidays.  The girl's face was a
+little wistful.  She so longed to see both her friends.  Without them
+and without Dick, this first Christmas under such changed conditions at
+home might be rather trying.
+
+"Oh!" Betty exclaimed a trifle indignantly, with her arm shaking so
+that the dishes in her hands rattled dangerously.  "What in the world
+are you doing in the house at this hour, Anthony Graham?  You
+frightened me nearly to death, turning up at my elbow in such an
+unexpected fashion.  I thought you had been gone hours!"
+
+Anthony put down his coal scuttle and took hold of Betty's tray.  "I
+have been away, but I came back for a moment because your mother wished
+me to do something for her as soon as I had the spare time."  His tone
+was so surly that Betty smiled.  Anthony had been brought up with such
+a different class of people that he was unable to understand sarcasm or
+pretense of any kind.  Whatever one said he accepted in exactly the
+words in which it was spoken.  And Betty and her friends had always
+been accustomed to joking with one another, to saying one thing, often
+meaning another.  Anthony should have had the sense to realize that she
+was not really cross, that her indignation was partly assumed.
+Therefore she did not intend taking the trouble to set him right in the
+present instance.
+
+"I'll carry the dishes down myself.  I have plenty of time," she
+protested coldly.
+
+But Anthony only held the more firmly to the tray, with his face
+crimsoning.
+
+The truth was that he had been appreciating in the past few days a
+truth of which the girl herself was as yet unconscious.  Betty's manner
+toward him had noticeably changed.  In the excitement of their
+Thanksgiving day meeting and his romantic return of the money which she
+had completely forgotten, she had shown far more interest and
+friendliness than she now did.  On that occasion Betty had overlooked
+the young fellow's roughness, his lack of education and family
+advantages.  Really Anthony had never been taught even the common
+civilities of life and had to trust to a kind of instinct, even in
+knowing when to take off his hat, when to shake hands, how to enter or
+leave a room.  And he understood keenly enough his own limitations.
+Yet the change in Betty's attitude had hurt him, even though he
+acknowledged to himself his failure to deserve even her original
+kindness.  She was still kind enough of course in the things which she
+thought counted.  She was cordial about his having his room in the
+house with her mother and herself and most careful of thanking him for
+any assistance which he rendered them.  Yet the difference was there.
+For neither in heart nor mind had Betty yet grown big enough to feel
+real comradeship with a boy so beneath her in social position and
+opportunities.
+
+Nevertheless she did not mean to be ungracious and something in the
+carriage of the young man's head as he moved off down the hall
+suggested that he was either hurt or angry, although exactly why Betty
+could not understand.
+
+"Don't go for a second, Anthony," she called after him.  "I wanted to
+tell you that you are living in a house with a haunted chamber.  At
+least I don't know whether this room is exactly haunted, but there is
+something queer about it that my mother and brother have never confided
+to me.  Perhaps I shall move in and find out for myself what it is.  I
+will if there is a chance of my friends, Esther Crippen and Polly
+O'Neill, coming home for the holidays.  For it is so big that we could
+stay in it together.  And perhaps Mrs. O'Neill will let Polly come here
+and visit me for a little while.  Both the girls are doing wonderful
+things in New York City.  And I am afraid if they don't come home
+pretty soon they will both have outgrown me.  It is so horrid to be a
+perfectly ordinary person."
+
+As Betty moved off, the expression on her companion's face did not
+suggest that he thought of her as entirely ordinary.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+TEMPTATION
+
+"You are perfectly absurd and I haven't the faintest intention of
+confiding in any one of you."  And Polly O'Neill, with her cheeks
+flaming, rushed away from a group of girls and into her own bedroom,
+closing the door and locking it behind her.
+
+This winter at boarding school in New York City had not been in the
+least what she had anticipated.  Perhaps the character of the school
+she and her mother had chosen had been unfortunate.  Yet they had
+selected it with the greatest care and it was expensive beyond Polly's
+wildest dreams.  For, apart from her own small inheritance, her
+stepfather, Mr. Wharton, had insisted on being allowed to contribute to
+her support, and not to appear too ungracious both to her mother and to
+him, his offer had been accepted.  Yet Polly did not consider herself
+any greater success in thus masquerading as a rich girl than she had
+been as a poor one.  Was she never to be satisfied?  Her school
+companions were all wealthy and few of them had any ideas beyond
+clothes and society.  To them Polly had seemed a kind of curiosity.
+She was so impetuous, so brilliant, so full of a thousand moods.  Betty
+Ashton had once said that to know Polly O'Neill was a liberal
+education, and yet in order to know her one ought to have had a liberal
+education beforehand.
+
+Today during the recreation hour at "Miss Elkins' Finishing School,"
+which was Polly's present abode, there had been a sudden discussion of
+plans for the future.  And Polly, partly because she was in a
+contradictory mood and partly because she really wished it to be known,
+had boldly announced herself as poor as a church mouse with no chance
+of not starving to death in the future unless she could learn to make
+her own living.
+
+And this had started the onslaught of questions from which she had just
+torn herself away.
+
+For Polly had absolutely determined not to confide in any one of her
+new companions her ambition to go upon the stage.  They would not
+understand and would only be stupid and inquisitive.  Why, had they not
+worried her nearly to death simply because of her acquaintance with
+Miss Margaret Adams?  For one day the great actress had driven up to
+the school and taken Polly for a drive.  And ever afterwards the other
+girls were determined to find out how and when she had met her and what
+she was like in every smallest particular, until Polly was nearly
+frantic.
+
+Now in her own room, which was a small one, but belonged to her alone,
+the girl dashed cold water on her face until she began to feel her
+temper cooling down.  Then with a book in her lap she planted herself
+in a low chair.  The book was a collection of Camp Fire songs which
+Sylvia Wharton had given her.  And although Polly could not sing, the
+poetry and inspiration of them was so lovely that she felt they might
+be a consoling influence.
+
+Nevertheless Polly did not commence reading at once.  Instead, her thin
+shoulders drooped forward pathetically, and putting one elbow on her
+knee she rested her pointed chin in her hand.
+
+For she was unhappy without any real reason in the world.  Polly
+O'Neill was one of the sensitive and emotional persons who must always
+be more or less miserable in the wrong environment.  She did not like
+being at boarding school and yet she did not wish to return to Woodford
+to live in her stepfather's house in circumstances so different from
+those of her old life.  Besides, had not Miss Adams advised that she
+spend several years away from Woodford in order to see more of the
+outside world and its myriad types of men and women?  She could not ask
+to be allowed to come back home now, after the fight she had made to
+leave.  Moreover, she was learning many things that might be useful to
+her as an actress.  Miss Adams herself had said so.  There was no fault
+with the opportunities for study at Miss Elkins', only with the
+interest of the girls.  She herself was working hard at French and
+German and physical culture and was having some special private
+teaching in elocution by a master recommended by Miss Adams.
+
+No, Polly did not intend to give up.  Only she was trying to decide
+whether or not to return to Woodford for the Christmas holidays.  She
+was longing to see her mother and Mollie and Betty Ashton.  Yet Frank
+Wharton would be at home and she and Frank had quarreled all the time
+that they had been in the house together during the past summer.  And
+her mother and Mollie were so wrapped up in one another and in the
+splendid new home and in Mr. Wharton!  Polly felt herself almost an
+outsider when she thought of the days when they had lived in their own
+little cottage just opposite the Princess.
+
+Then, at the thought of Betty Ashton, the slightly hard look in Polly's
+Irish blue eyes faded.  Of the Princess' understanding and affection
+she could always feel sure.  And what a brave fight she was making!
+Every letter from her mother or Mollie or from any one of their old
+Camp Fire circle had something admiring to say of her.  And yet she and
+Mollie had always thought of their Princess as only a spoiled darling,
+beautiful and meant only for cherishing.  Ah well, the Princess was
+really an aristocrat in the old meaning of the word.  She had never
+been in the least like these New York girls, caring for money for its
+own sake and feeling superior to other people just because of her
+money.  Betty had birth and beauty and brains.
+
+Suddenly Polly dashed the tears from her eyes and with a smile jumped
+to her feet, dropping her Camp Fire book.  There was no use sitting
+there and thinking of all the virtues that her Princess possessed that
+began with "b."  This was Friday afternoon and she was free to do what
+she liked.  Esther was living in a boarding house not far away, and she
+had not seen her in two weeks.  And in all the world there was nothing
+Esther liked to talk about so much as Betty.  Besides, if Esther were
+going home for the holidays, why, Polly felt that she would rather like
+to have some one persuade her into making her own decision.
+
+Is it good or evil fortune that makes one so readily influenced by
+outside conditions?  The December afternoon was cold and brilliant; and
+in few places is the climate of early winter so stimulating as in New
+York City.  Esther was not at home, and for a few minutes her visitor
+felt disappointed.  But the streets were so beautiful and alluring and
+there were so many people out!  It was true that Polly had received
+permission only to call upon her friend, but what wrong could there be
+in her taking a walk?  She had only to keep straight along Broadway and
+there could be no possible chance of getting lost.  Polly was not in
+the least timid or unable to take care of herself.  She was a girl from
+a small town, and yet no one could have imagined that she had not been
+a New Yorker all her life, except for her quick and eager interest in
+the sights about her.
+
+No one noticed or molested Polly in the least.  It was only that in her
+usual unthinking fashion she flung herself into the way of temptation.
+Farther down Broadway than she had ever been before, Polly stopped for
+a moment to look more closely at a group of girls.  Most of them were
+several years older than herself.  They were standing close together
+near a closed door, and yet only occasionally did one of them make a
+remark to the other; for apparently they were strangers to one another.
+
+At first the girls themselves attracted Polly's attention because the
+larger number appeared so nervous and anxious.  More than half of them
+had their faces rouged and powdered and were fashionably dressed, yet
+even when they smiled their expressions were uneasy.
+
+They interested the country girl immensely.  In order not to seem rude
+or inquisitive she pretended to wish to gaze into a shop window near
+them.  Then, as they continued waiting and showed no sign of what they
+were waiting for, Polly O'Neill's curiosity overcame her good manners.
+Another girl had separated herself from the group and was standing
+within two feet of Polly, also pretending to stare into the same window.
+
+Polly edged closer to her.  The young woman must have been nearly
+twenty-five.  She had been pretty once, yet already her face was
+haggard and she had circles under her big brown eyes.  Unexpectedly
+Polly smiled at her, and there was always something almost irresistible
+in Polly's smile.
+
+"Could you, would you mind telling me why so many girls are standing
+here in this one particular spot?" she inquired.  "It is a cold day
+when one is still.  And yet I have been here almost ten minutes and no
+one has even started to move away."
+
+"We are waiting to try to get jobs," the older girl answered
+listlessly.  "And we have come sooner than we were told because each
+one of us hoped to get ahead of the other."
+
+"Jobs?" Polly repeated stupidly.  "What kind of work is it that you are
+looking for?"
+
+"Oh, theatrical jobs," the young woman explained.  "It's coming on to
+be Christmas time and the managers are putting on extras for the
+holidays."
+
+She turned away from her questioner, believing that she had heard a
+faint noise at the door near which they were lingering.  A quick tug at
+her coat attracted her attention again.
+
+"Can any one apply for a position who wants it?" Polly queried.  Her
+eyes were shining, her cheeks were crimson and her breath coming in
+kind of broken gasps as though she were frightened.
+
+But the magic door had opened at last and the older woman had no time
+to waste.  "Oh, yes, any one can apply," she returned with a kind of
+hardness.  And then she failed to observe that the girl she had been
+talking with was following close behind her.
+
+Polly herself hardly realized what she was doing.  Once more she had
+yielded to that old wretched habit of hers, of acting first and then
+thinking afterwards.  Like a flash of lightning it had but this instant
+occurred to her that more than anything she would like to see inside a
+theatrical manager's office.  It would be like placing the tips of
+one's toes on the promised land.  Of course, Polly knew perfectly well
+that she was being reckless, only she would not allow herself time to
+consider this point of view.  She would simply slip in with these other
+girls and pretend that she would like a position should she be forced
+into it.  As she had had no experience, there could be no possibility
+of her getting an engagement.  Ten minutes afterwards she would slip
+out again and return to school.
+
+With a dozen or more other girls, Polly was the next moment ushered
+into a room that was quite dark and had only a few chairs in it.  There
+they were told to wait until the manager could be free to speak to
+them.  So Polly crowded herself into the farthest, darkest corner and
+immediately her heart began to thump and her knees to shake, while she
+wished herself a thousand miles away.
+
+What would her mother say to this latest of her escapades; and Mollie
+and Betty?  What would Miss Adams, for that matter, think of her?  She
+was an actress herself; but of course Polly never imagined that she had
+started her career in any such humble fashion.
+
+Coming partially to her senses, Polly started hurriedly toward the
+closed door.  There was no reason in the world for her remaining in
+this room unless she wished it.  But just as she turned the knob the
+manager entered from the hall.  And Polly's curiosity got the better of
+her again.  She would stay just half a minute longer and see what
+happened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE WAY OF THE WILFUL
+
+When Polly O'Neill came out into the street again, she did not know
+whether she was walking on the sidewalk, in the air, or at the bottom
+of the sea.  But because of a certain thrilling excitement she felt
+that she must have wings and because of a heavy weight inside her that
+she must be in the depth of the sea.
+
+For Polly had just signed an engagement to act for two weeks in a
+Christmas pantomime.
+
+It sounds incredible.  And it was possibly as unwise and headstrong a
+thing as a girl could well do.  And yet Polly had originally no actual
+intention or desire to do wrong.  Simply she had yielded to a sudden
+impulse, to an intense curiosity.  But now things were different; for
+Polly was realizing her wilfulness completely, and instead of repenting
+and turning back to confess her folly, was every moment trying to plan
+by what method her purpose could be accomplished.
+
+Not for anything in the world would her mother give her consent to her
+experiment.  And that in itself should have been a sufficient argument
+against it.  Yet Polly explained to herself that, after all, there
+could not be any great harm in doing what she so much wished, provided
+that she made confession afterwards.  She was almost eighteen, and
+thousands of girls in New York City were earning their living, who were
+years younger than she.  Perhaps it might even do her good to find out
+what this stage life really was like--whether it was as fascinating as
+she dreamed, or all tinsel as most grown people were so fond of telling
+her.
+
+No, the question that was uppermost with Polly O'Neill was not in
+connection with her decision.  It was how her decision might best be
+carried out.
+
+Fortunately she had been writing that she did not believe that she
+would come home for the Christmas holidays.  She did wish to see her
+mother and Mollie and Betty, of course, and had almost given way to
+this longing only an hour before.  But now, had not fate itself
+intervened, flinging her into the path of her desire?  And Polly was
+Irish and had always declared that she believed in the leadings of
+fate, even when her mother and sister had insisted that fate and her
+own wish were too often confused in her mind.
+
+Had she not hidden herself in the corner when the theatrical manager
+entered the room, with every intention of running away as soon as she
+could escape unobserved?  And then had he not suddenly swooped down
+upon her, selecting her from the dozens of other applicants?  Polly was
+not exactly sure of what had happened, except that the man had said
+that she looked the part of the character he was after.  The fact that
+she had confessed having had no stage experience had not even deterred
+him.  The new play was to be chiefly for young people and the manager
+particularly required youthful actors and actresses.
+
+The play to be produced was the dramatization of a wonderful old
+Bohemian fairy story, which Polly remembered to have read years before,
+called "The Castle of Life."  The story is that of a little boy,
+Grazioso, brought up by his grandmother, whom he loves better than all
+else in the world.  Then one day he sees that the grandmother is
+growing old and fears that she must soon leave him.  And so he sets out
+to find "The Castle of Life" in order once more to bring back youth to
+the old woman.  The play follows his adventures on the road to the
+castle, and includes his meeting with two fairies--the Fairy of the
+Woods and the Fairy of the Water.  Polly was to impersonate the wood
+spirit.
+
+Her appearance did suggest the character, though naturally she could
+not appreciate this fact.  But there was always something a bit eerie
+and fantastic about her, something not exactly of the everyday
+world--her high cheekbones and thin, emotional face with its scarlet
+lips and intense expression faintly foreshadowing an unusual future.
+
+But Polly at the present moment was not feeling in the least unusual,
+only rather more self-willed and more calculating.  Never could she
+recall having deliberately deceived any one before in her entire life.
+And yet to accomplish her present purpose there was no other way than
+the way of deception.  No one in Woodford must guess at her reason for
+remaining in New York during the holidays, nor must Miss Elkins have
+any possible cause for suspicion.  Of course she could not stay on at
+boarding school.  That idea was utterly ridiculous.  She would never be
+allowed to go out for a single evening alone.  Already her right to
+liberty had been considerably overreached by this walk of hers down
+town.  And what she had done during the walk!  The offender smiled
+rather wickedly at the thought of the consternation and excitement that
+the discovery of her act would create.  Home she would go to Woodford
+then to stay indefinitely!
+
+But Polly did not mean to be found out, She meant to have her little
+taste of emancipation and then go back into routine again, until she
+was old enough for a larger freedom.  So for this reason, although she
+should have returned to school an hour before, she continued walking
+slowly, devising and rejecting a dozen plans.  It was going to be
+tremendously difficult to accomplish her purpose.  But this she had
+foreseen five minutes after she had promised to accept the theatrical
+manager's offer.  However she would "find a way."  She remembered how
+often the Princess had said that she had more talent than "Sentimental
+Tommy" in this particular direction.
+
+She reached Miss Elkins' school and received five minutes' scolding
+from that lady, in the meekest spirit, still without having any idea of
+what she could possibly do to accomplish her design.
+
+All evening she talked so little and her attention was so concentrated
+upon the lesson which she appeared to be studying, that her school
+companions left her entirely alone.  Polly's passion for studying had
+always been regarded as an eccentricity.  But now since she had
+announced on that afternoon that she had her own living to make there
+was possibly some excuse for her industry.  Nevertheless the girls felt
+more convinced than ever that she was not in the least like any of the
+rest of them and, although rather fascinating and unusual, not a person
+whom one would care to know intimately.
+
+The difference in her manner and expression that night attracted the
+attention of one of the teachers--the girl's face was so tense and
+white, her blue eyes showed such dark shadows beneath them.  It was
+owing to this teacher's advice that Polly was allowed to leave the
+study hall an hour earlier than usual and go to her own room and to bed.
+
+She was not feeling particularly well.  Her head did ache and her
+conscience troubled her the least little bit, notwithstanding she had
+not the faintest intention of surrender.  With hot cheeks and cold
+hands she lay still for a long time until the noises of the other girls
+retiring had quieted down and the big house was silent.  Then Polly
+suddenly sat up in bed.  A moment later she had crawled out on the
+floor and lighted a candle by her writing desk.  The electric lights
+had been turned off for the night.  But even in the pitch darkness
+Polly would still have composed her letter.  For an idea had at last
+come to her.  And if only she could get just one person to accede to it
+her way would be plain.  The one person might be difficult.  Polly was
+perfectly aware of this, but then she had great faith in her own powers
+of persuasion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+ESTHER'S ROOM
+
+Just above the small alcohol lamp the teakettle was beginning to sing.
+On a table near-by were teacups and saucers, with one plate of
+sandwiches covered over with a small napkin, and another of cookies.
+
+Several times a tall girl glanced at the clock and then walked across
+the room to take the kettle off the stove, only to place it back again
+the next instant.
+
+Then at last she seated herself by an open piano.  There was very
+little furniture in the room except the piano, a small cot and the
+table.  Yet it had an atmosphere of home and comfort, such as some
+persons are able to give to a tent in a desert.  And standing in a row
+at the back of the same tea table were three candles in ten-cent-store
+glass candlesticks, waiting to be lighted.  The afternoon was a dismal
+one, with occasional flurries of snow; so that when the proper time
+came for the candle-lighting, the flames would not be ungrateful.
+
+But in order to make the waiting seem less long the girl was evidently
+trying to distract her attention by practicing her music.  Several
+times she sang over the scales.  And then, dissatisfied with her own
+work, repeated them until finally her voice rose with unusual resonance
+and power.  Then, after another slight pause, she drifted almost
+unconsciously into the words of a song:
+
+  "Burn, fire, burn!
+  Flicker, flicker, flame!
+  Whose hand above this blaze is lifted
+  Shall be with magic touch engifted,
+  To warm the hearts of lonely mortals
+  Who stand without their open portals.
+  The torch shall draw them to the fire
+  Higher, higher
+  By desire.
+  Whoso shall stand by this hearthstone,
+  Flame-fanned,
+  Shall never, never stand alone;
+  Whose house is dark and bare and cold,
+  Whose house is cold,
+  This is his own.
+  Flicker, flicker, flicker, flame;
+  Burn, fire burn!"
+
+
+She had not heard the door open softly nor even noticed the figure that
+crept softly into the small room.
+
+But now a pair of gloved hands were clasped eagerly together and an
+enthusiastic voice said:
+
+"Esther Crippen, that is the loveliest song in all the world and you
+are the loveliest singer of it!  How glad I am to have arrived at just
+this moment!  Why, your little room makes me feel that it is a _real_
+refuge from all that is dark and bare and cold.  And you surely are
+with the 'magic touch engifted to warm the hearts of lonely mortals'
+with that beautiful voice of yours."
+
+And Polly O'Neill, putting one hand on each of Esther's cheeks, kissed
+her with unexpected ardor.
+
+It made Esther flush and tremble slightly as she rose to greet her
+long-desired guest.  Any compliment made Esther shy and one from Polly
+more than from another person.  For although each girl admired the
+other's talents and character, they had never understood each other
+especially well.  Esther always seemed to Polly far too sober and
+almost too unselfish and self-effacing, while Polly to the quieter girl
+had all the brilliance and unreliability of a will-o'-the-wisp.  Before
+coming to New York for the winter their intimacy had been due largely
+to their mutual devotion to Betty; but now, both lonely and both in a
+new environment, they had been greatly drawn together.  Polly's
+occasional visits had been one of Esther's few sources of pleasure
+outside her work.
+
+"How charming you are looking, Polly," Esther began, taking off her
+guest's dark coat and hat, and seeing her emerge in a crimson woolen
+dress, which made a bright spot of color in the shabby room.  Polly,
+you must remember, was only pretty on occasions; but this afternoon was
+certainly one of her good-looking days.  The cold had made her pale
+cheeks flame and given a softer glow to her eyes.
+
+"I am simply ravenous, Esther, and dying for your delicious tea," Polly
+next remarked, following her hostess to the tea table and taking her
+seat, while Esther poured out the boiling water.  "It is a kind of a
+homesick day and I have been wishing that we were going to have a
+meeting of our old Sunrise Hill Camp Fire circle.  What wouldn't you
+give for a glimpse of the Princess this afternoon?"
+
+Esther's lips twitched as she lighted her three candles.
+
+"Almost anything I possess," she returned.
+
+"But you are going to see her pretty soon?  You are going back to
+Woodford for Christmas?"  Polly tried to hide her own nervousness in
+putting this simple question.  With her eyes shining over the edge of
+her cup she continued slowly drinking her tea, so that the rest of her
+face could not be seen.
+
+But Esther was not paying her any special attention.  Quietly she shook
+her head.  "No, Polly, I am not going home.  I am so sorry, for I
+wanted to dreadfully.  But my music lessons are so expensive that
+father does not feel he can afford to let me come.  I haven't yet had
+the courage to write and break the news to the Princess.  She is fond
+of me, don't you think so, Polly?  She will be sorry that I can't be
+with her for the holidays?  Of course I know she does not care for me
+as she does for you.  I shall never expect that.  But it does mean so
+much to me to feel sure of her affection."
+
+Polly frowned in a slightly puzzled fashion.  Esther's adoration even
+of her beloved Betty seemed a little unnatural.  Why should one girl
+care so much about the attitude of another one?  She loved Betty
+herself, of course, and Betty loved her.  Yet she doubted very much if
+either one worried over the emotions of the other.
+
+"Oh, yes, Esther," Polly returned a trifle impatiently.  "Of course
+Betty is devoted to you.  Why shouldn't she be?  Really, I do think you
+would let her almost trample upon you if she liked.  Only Betty never
+would like to hurt any one, thank heaven!  But I am glad to hear you
+are not going home for the Christmas holidays, because I am not going
+either."
+
+There was nothing so remarkable in this statement that it should make
+Polly turn white and then red again.  But fortunately the three Camp
+Fire candles, "Work, Health and Love," were now flickering so that the
+elder girl could not get a clear vision of the other's face.
+
+But instead of appearing pleased over this news Esther seemed
+disappointed.  "I am so sorry, for Betty's sake," she returned.  "She
+wouldn't mind my not being with her so much if she only might have you."
+
+Polly shrugged her thin shoulders in a fashion she had when vexed.
+
+"O Esther, I think you might have been polite enough to say that you
+would be glad to have me in town if you were to be here--particularly
+when I came to ask you if I might spend the holidays with you."
+
+"Spend the holidays with me?" Esther repeated in rather a stupid
+fashion.  Naturally she was puzzled as to just why a girl in Polly's
+position should elect to spend her Christmas vacation in a cheap New
+York boarding house with another girl for whom she had no special
+sentiment.
+
+"Why in the world do you want to remain in the city with me?" she asked
+again, too honest to pretend that pleasure was her first sentiment
+until she got a more definite understanding of the situation.
+
+But Polly was now making no effort to devote her attention either to
+eating or drinking.  Instead she had rested both elbows on the table
+and was looking at her companion with the half-pleading,
+half-commanding expression that both Mollie and Betty knew so well.
+
+"Promise not to say anything until I have finished?" she began
+coaxingly.  "For you see it is to explain why I want to stay with you
+that made me write to ask you to make this engagement with me for this
+afternoon."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE THREAT
+
+"Then you refuse to help me or to keep my secret?" Polly O'Neill
+protested indignantly.  "Really, Esther, I never knew any one with such
+a gift for considering herself her sister's keeper.  We belong to the
+same Camp Fire Club.  And if that means anything I thought it was
+loyalty and service toward one another.
+
+  "'As fagots are brought from the forest
+    Firmly held by the sinews which bind them,
+  So cleave to these others, your sisters,
+    Wherever, whenever you find them.'"
+
+
+Esther had walked across the room and had her back turned during this
+recitation.  But now she moved around, facing her visitor until it was
+Polly's eyes that dropped before her own.  The older girl had always
+the dignity that comes from truth and sincerity.
+
+"Don't be absurd, Polly," she said, speaking quietly, but with no lack
+of decision.  "You know as well as I do that loyalty has nothing to do
+with aiding one another to do what one does not believe to be right.  I
+don't want to preach.  Yet don't you think perhaps _you_ are breaking a
+part of our Camp Fire law?  'Be Trustworthy.  This law teaches us not
+to undertake enterprises rashly.'"
+
+"Oh, please hush, Esther,"  Polly insisted.  "There is no use in our
+quarreling, and we are sure to if you go on preaching like that.  I
+told you what I have made up my mind to do.  If you don't wish to help
+me, that of course is your affair.  All I have the right to demand is,
+that what I told you in the strictest confidence you repeat to no one
+else."
+
+She picked up her coat and began slowly buttoning it, waiting for
+Esther's reply, which did not come at once.
+
+"I don't know whether I can promise you even that," the older girl
+answered finally.  Her face was white and she moved her hands in the
+old nervous fashion that Betty had almost broken her of.  "I don't
+suppose you can understand, Polly, what an almost dangerous thing you
+are about to undertake.  And without your mother knowing it!  O Polly,
+please don't!  Why, if anything should happen to you what would she say
+to me or Molly and Betty, if knowing your intention I did not warn
+them?"
+
+Polly was like a hot flame in her anger.  In her life Esther scarcely
+remembered ever having seen any one in such intense yet quiet passion.
+All the blue seemed to have gone out of her visitor's eyes until they
+were almost black.  Her lips were drawn and although she tried to
+control her voice, it quivered like a too-tightly-drawn violin string.
+
+"Esther," she said, "I shall not leave this room until I have your
+solemn promise.  Perhaps you don't know anything about the standards of
+conduct between people of birth and breeding.  You were brought up in
+an orphan asylum and had no mother.  Whether you disapprove of me or
+not makes no difference.  I am not objecting to your disapproval.  I
+can perfectly understand that.  But what I absolutely will not endure
+is for you to tell my secret because it happens to strike your
+conscience that that is the right thing to do.  My secret belongs to me
+as absolutely as my clothes or any of my other possessions do.  And
+because you chance not to approve of it or of them is no reason why you
+should steal them from me and give them away to other people."
+
+Again Esther was silent and her eyes filled with tears.  What was the
+use of arguing with Polly when she was in this mood?  Yet there were so
+many things that she could honestly say.  And one of them, that if she
+had had the good fortune to have a mother, she at least would not have
+tried to deceive her as Polly was doing.
+
+However Esther was not sure that the latter part of her companion's
+argument was not true.  Had she the right to betray Polly's confidence,
+even though she might consider it for her good?  For Polly had begun
+her revelation by insisting that what she told be kept in the strictest
+secrecy, and she had listened with that understanding.
+
+Unfortunately Esther's failure to reply did not strike her visitor as
+indicating a change in her point of view.  Polly flung herself angrily
+down into a chair, as though intent upon beginning a siege.  She was
+trying in a measure to control her temper, realizing how ashamed she
+usually felt after the flare of it was past.  Still she did honorably
+consider that Esther's attitude in the present situation was the wrong
+one.  Perhaps she was being disobedient, wilful, wicked even.  Yet she
+had made up her mind to take the consequences (at least the
+consequences that she was now able to foresee).  And she had no idea of
+being frustrated in her purpose by an outside person, whose assistance
+she had been foolish enough to ask.  No, some way must be devised that
+would force Esther into silence.
+
+Polly glanced desperately about the small room.  There was a big
+photograph of the Princess, smiling at her from the wall, the Princess
+at her loveliest, with her exquisitely refined features, her delicate,
+high-bred air.  She turned away from it rather quickly to look again at
+her companion.  Goodness, what a contrast there still was between the
+two girls!  They had believed that Esther was improving a little in her
+appearance.  Yet just now worry and uncertainty made her seem plainer
+even than usual.  And she had on an ugly but thoroughly useful
+chocolate-colored dress that Betty would have made her throw into the
+fire at once.
+
+"Betty, it was always Betty with Esther Crippen!"  If only she could
+reach Esther in some way through their friend.  This was an ugly
+thought of Polly's.  She was ashamed of it and yet felt herself driven
+to using almost any means toward attaining her end.
+
+"Look here, Esther Crippen," she began, breaking the silence first.  "I
+wonder if it has ever occurred to you that you may some day have a
+secret in your life (or you may have one already for all that I know),
+which you want more than anything to keep hidden from people.  Say you
+particularly wished Betty never to find it out.  Well, suppose I
+discovered your secret, suppose I knew about it right now, would you
+want me to tell Betty everything that I had found out just because I
+decided that it would be the right thing to do?"
+
+Polly happened to be staring into her own lap as she delivered this
+speech, feeling none too proud of it and having to trust to her
+imagination as she went along.  Now, however, she glanced up into the
+face of the other girl, who was standing near her.
+
+Then with an exclamation of regret, almost of fear, Polly jumped to her
+feet.
+
+"Good heavens!  Esther, what is the matter with you?  Are you ill, do
+you feel like you were going to faint?  If you are sick why on earth
+haven't you told me before?  We could talk over this business of mine
+any time."
+
+And Polly, forgetting her anger, put her arm reassuringly about her
+former friend, fairly leading her to a chair.  Esther continued staring
+at her, with a deathly white face, evidently trying to speak, but not
+able.  Then suddenly the girl collapsed and dropping her head on her
+arm began to cry.  She was ordinarily self-restrained; and being
+brought up in an orphan asylum among people who took no interest in her
+emotions she had learned unusual self-control.  Probably only three or
+four persons had ever seen her give way like this before in her life.
+So she did not cry easily, but in a kind of shaken, broken fashion that
+brought a remorseful Polly on the floor at her feet.
+
+"What on earth have I said that has hurt you so, Esther?" she begged.
+"I know I am a wretched little beast who does or say 'most anything
+sometimes in order to get my own way.  But of course I don't know any
+secret of yours and if I did I should never tell.  I only like to
+threaten things because I'm cross.  You see I don't believe in telling
+secrets."
+
+This was a Polly-like way of apologizing and yet driving in her own
+claim at the same time.  If only at this moment Esther had had the
+Princess' understanding of Polly O'Neill's character, most certainly
+she would have laughed.  But Esther could not pull herself together so
+quickly.  A few moments later, however, she put her hands on Polly's
+shoulders and in the face of all that had just happened, kissed her.
+
+"No, Polly," she said, "I know that if ever you should make up your
+mind that there was something, which I thought best should never be
+known, you would never tell it, even if I betray your secret now.
+Perhaps we don't agree about some things.  But you could never be
+revengeful.  I am sure I don't know what I ought to do.  Of course you
+have the right to choose for yourself.  I--I wish you wouldn't do what
+you have decided upon.  But if I don't tell and yet don't let you stay
+here with me, what on earth would you do about this theatrical scheme?"
+
+"Why, go to some other boarding house for two weeks," Polly replied
+calmly.  "I am sure that is exactly what you are doing, boarding in New
+York and going on with your work.  Of course your work happens to be
+studying music at present, but you have already sung at two church
+concerts and----"
+
+This time Esther did laugh.  "Well, church concerts are hardly to be
+compared with the stage, Polly.  And please look in your mirror and
+remember that I am I and you are you.  But of course you realize that
+if you will go on with this whim of yours, I am not going to let you
+live in any place by yourself.  You would be sure to get ill or
+something dreadful might happen.  No, I shall beg you every minute till
+the time comes, not to do what you must know would worry your mother.
+But if you still persist, why, you are coming right here to stay with
+me and I shall be your shadow every moment until you go back to school."
+
+Polly jumped up hastily.  "What an impolite suggestion for a hostess!"
+she murmured, pretending that the seriousness of the situation was now
+entirely past.  "Go back to school?  Dear me, that is what I must do
+this very minute!  Good-bye."  And kissing Esther hastily on the hair,
+Polly seized her hat and fled out the door.
+
+Yet halfway down the long stairs the girl hesitated and stopped for an
+instant as if intending to return.
+
+"Perhaps I ought to give up and be good for once," she whispered to
+herself.  "It won't be fair, and mother and Mollie and Betty may be
+angry with Esther for not telling.  Even if I have the right to get
+into trouble myself, I haven't the right to drag in other people.  But,
+oh dear! what fun it will be!  And with Esther for my duenna, things
+are sure to turn out all right."
+
+On the lowest steps Polly passed a small boy hobbling up toward
+Esther's room.  He was evidently a boy from the streets, as he was
+shabbily dressed and carried half a dozen papers under his arm.  But
+there was a hungry, eager look in his face that Polly remembered having
+seen sometimes in Esther's in those early days of her first coming to
+Mrs. Ashton's home.  So straightway she guessed that the boy was some
+child, whom Esther had discovered, with a talent and love for music and
+that she was giving him lessons in her leisure moments.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+PREPARATIONS FOR THE HOLIDAYS
+
+"But if you won't come, Betty dear, I shan't wish to give the party,"
+Meg Everett announced in a disappointed fashion.  "With Polly and
+Esther not to be here, there are so few of our old Camp Fire circle
+anyhow.  And you see I only wanted to have our club and a few of John's
+young men friends.  The idea is that we girls are to cook the entire
+dinner and then just talk or dance or play games afterwards.  It is not
+to be anything like a _real_ party."
+
+Betty smiled.  She and Meg and Mollie O'Neill were taking a winter
+tramp through the woods in the direction of the Sunrise Cabin, which
+had been closed for the past six months.
+
+"I should dearly love to come, Meg," Betty confessed.  "There is no use
+in my pretending that I shouldn't feel desperately lonely with the
+thought of your having such a good time without me.  But mother----"
+
+Mollie gave her arm an affectionate squeeze.  "There, Betty Ashton,
+that is just exactly what I knew you would say.  So I talked the whole
+matter over with your mother myself first.  And she declares that there
+isn't any reason why you should not accept Meg's invitation.  She is
+quite sure that your father would never have wished you not to be as
+happy as possible.  You have had trouble enough, goodness knows!   And
+then the extra disappointment of Polly's and Esther's remaining in New
+York!  I am glad enough Meg is going to give a party, and I hope there
+will be dozens of delightful things that Polly O'Neill will miss.  What
+on earth do you suppose has possessed her to want to stay on with
+Esther?"
+
+And Mollie sighed.  The three months without her sister may have passed
+by in greater peacefulness than with her, but then Polly always added a
+zest and flavor to existence.  And this was the longest time that the
+two girls had ever been separated.
+
+"Oh, I don't know.  She must have had some very good reason," Betty
+returned.  "Polly wrote me that she had, and now we must not believe
+that she did not love us as much as ever.  She wasn't able to explain
+the particulars just at present; but if we only trust her and forgive
+her some day we will understand."
+
+Mollie frowned.  With a much quieter and more amiable temperament than
+her twin, yet nearly eighteen years of intimate living with her had
+given her a pretty clear comprehension of her sister's character.
+Privately Mollie was puzzled over Polly's behavior and a good deal
+worried.  It was not like Polly to have conceived so sudden a devotion
+to Esther as to be unwilling to leave her for two weeks.  And her claim
+that she might not be particularly happy at home because of her
+stepbrother's presence was not convincing.  For Betty Ashton had
+invited Polly to be her guest.  No, Polly certainly had some special
+design in staying on in New York.  Of this Mollie was completely
+convinced.  But what the purpose was, neither from her own imaginings
+nor from any hint dropped by her sister's letters, could she get the
+slightest clue.
+
+The three girls had come to a narrow path through the woods, and for a
+little while were compelled to walk in single file.  For a few moments
+they were silent, each one busy with her own thoughts, Mollie happening
+to be in the middle.
+
+"I believe I'll ask Billy what he thinks," she remarked suddenly aloud.
+And then she bit her lips, blushing until the very tips of her ears
+grew warm.  For Meg and Betty were both laughing in the most ridiculous
+way.
+
+"Is it as bad as that, Mollie?" Meg teased.
+
+"Ask Billy what he thinks on one or all subjects, dear?" Betty queried.
+
+To both of which questions Mollie naturally deigned no reply.
+
+She and Billy Webster were extremely good friends.  Indeed, they seemed
+always to have been since the day of their first meeting, when she had
+bound up his injured head.  And this winter, with Polly away and Betty
+so busy and Meg wrapped up in keeping house and Sylvia spending all her
+spare hours in studying with Dr. Barton when not at school, she had
+enjoyed the walks and talks with the young man perhaps more than usual.
+But it was not because of their intimacy that she had considered
+putting this problem of Polly's failure to return home before him.  Her
+reason was that in their long conversations about her sister, Billy had
+always seemed not only to be interested in Polly but able to understand
+her disposition peculiarly well.  So it was stupid for her two friends
+to have taken her foolish exclamation as meaning anything personal.
+
+The next ten minutes Betty and Meg had rather a difficult time in
+making peace; for Mollie had not a strong sense of humor--a fact which
+both girls should have remembered.  But because she was always so
+gentle and kind herself, no one of her friends could bear the idea of
+hurting her feelings under any circumstances.
+
+However while Betty was in the midst of apologizing, Billy Webster
+himself came swinging along the same path from the opposite direction.
+He had his gun over his shoulder and half a dozen birds in his hand.
+
+"Who is it taking my name in vain?" he demanded of Betty.
+
+And Mollie had a dreadful moment of fearing that Betty might betray
+what they had been talking about.  However, as nothing of the kind
+happened, ten minutes later Meg and Betty were walking ahead deep in
+conversation about the party, while Mollie and Billy strolled after
+them only a few feet behind.
+
+The young man had been on his way into Woodford to divide the product
+of his day's hunting between Mrs. Ashton and Mrs. O'Neill.  Now,
+hearing that the girls were on a pilgrimage to Sunrise Cabin, he had
+been invited to accompany them.
+
+"No, it won't be like a meeting of our Camp Fire Club, Meg," Betty
+argued thoughtfully, after having satisfied herself by a glance over
+her shoulder that Mollie and Billy were too absorbed in each other to
+take any notice of them.  "I have been coming to our Camp Fire Club
+meetings all winter and because I am in mourning made no difference.
+But with John inviting his friends to your entertainment, why, I can't
+make up my mind yet, dear, whether I have the courage to come."
+
+Betty spoke bravely, but Meg slipped her arm across her friend's
+shoulder, holding her fast.  The two girls were closer friends now that
+Polly and Esther were both away and Meg understood that sometimes Betty
+did not feel so cheerful as she pretended.
+
+"John won't ask more than just one other fellow to keep him company, if
+we can have you with us in no other way," Meg conceded.  "You see,
+Betty, John is only to be at home for a few days.  As this is his
+senior year at college he wants to so some special work during the
+holidays.  But he likes you so much better than any of the other girls
+in Woodford, that I am quite sure----"
+
+But Betty had stuffed her fingers in her ears and was refusing to
+listen.  "It is bad enough to have you girls spoil me because I am in
+trouble, but when it comes to telling fibs I won't hear you.  Of course
+you know, Meg Everett, that I am not going to let you spoil everybody's
+pleasure on my account," she answered.
+
+Feeling the victory already won, Meg laughed.  "John is only to invite
+Billy Webster and Frank Wharton and Ralph Bowles and three or four of
+his Boy Scout camp.  By the way, Betty, one of the things I
+particularly wished to talk to you about is this: Shall we ask Anthony
+Graham?  He seems rather uncouth and the other fellows won't have
+anything to do with him.  But he is Nan's brother and she is so
+splendid I should hate to hurt her feelings."
+
+Betty shook her head.  "Anthony isn't the kind of person to invite
+though, Meg," she replied without a moment's hesitation.  "Of course he
+is trying to pull up and keep straight and I feel that we should do all
+we can to help him.  But inviting him to our parties and treating him
+as if he were exactly our equal!"  Betty's chin went up in the air and
+her face betrayed such a delicate, high-bred disdain that apparently
+Anthony's fate was immediately settled.
+
+The little party had now reached the familiar pine woods and there,
+only a few yards ahead, stood their deserted cabin.  The totem pole
+raised its gaunt head to greet them, still decorated with the history
+of their year in the woods together.  But the doors and windows of the
+cabin were barred with heavy planks.  Nowhere was there a sign of life.
+
+"Let's go back home at once, please, now that we have seen that
+everything is all right," Mollie begged a moment later.  "It always
+gives me the blues dreadfully to see Sunrise Cabin closed up and to
+know that perhaps no one of us shall ever live there again.  I never
+dreamed when we said good-bye to it last spring that we would not come
+out here often for club meetings and parties."
+
+"Parties?" Meg repeated.  Then she continued standing perfectly still
+and silent for several moments, although the others were moving about
+laughing and talking.
+
+"Parties!" she exclaimed again, speaking in such a loud tone that her
+companions turned to stare at her in surprise.
+
+"Betty Ashton, Mollie O'Neill and Billy Webster, if you and some of the
+others will help us, why can't we have our dinner party here at the
+cabin?  We are not planning to have it until New Year, so there will be
+plenty of time to make arrangements."
+
+However, Meg could get no further with her suggestion, for Betty and
+Mollie had both flung their arms about her and Betty exclaimed:
+
+"It will almost make me have a happy holiday time, Meg dearest, and I
+can never bear to refuse your invitation if we are to be together at
+Sunrise Cabin once again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE CASTLE OF LIFE
+
+It seemed to Esther Crippen that she had been sitting in the wings of
+the theater every evening for half her lifetime, although it had been
+only a week since Polly's initial appearance as the Fairy of the Woods
+in the dramatization of the ancient legend "The Castle of Life."
+
+At first she had spent every moment after Polly's departure from the
+dressing room in peering out from some inconspicuous corner at whatever
+action was taking place upon the stage.  Now, however, the play and
+even the actors themselves had become a comparatively old story.  Her
+interest centered itself chiefly in Polly--in Polly and the odd human
+characters that she saw everywhere about her.  Indeed, except for her
+nervousness and care of her friend, this week had been almost as
+absorbing to Esther Crippen as to the other girl.  For after the first
+two nights she had lost her fear that Polly might make an absolute
+failure of her part, and also the impression that either of them might
+be insulted or unkindly treated by the men and women about them.
+People had been rough perhaps, but thoroughly business-like.  And if
+Polly were told to hurry, or to move on, or corrected for some mistake
+in her work, it was all done in so impersonal a fashion that both girls
+had learned valuable lessons from the experience.  Esther had been
+amazed at the spirit in which Polly had accepted the discipline and
+hard work.  Perhaps, after all, she had been making a mountain out of a
+mole hill and this disobedience on Polly's part, wrong though it
+certainly was, might not result in anything so disastrous as she had at
+first feared.
+
+And there was no doubt that Polly was achieving a real success, one
+that surprised her and every one else.  Her part was only a small one,
+with but few words to speak; otherwise she could never have managed it
+with no previous experience and so little time for rehearsing.
+Nevertheless she had made one of those sudden yet conspicuous triumphs
+that are so frequent in stage life.  Sometimes it may happen with a
+girl playing the part of a maid, sometimes with a man who has not half
+a dozen sentences to recite.  It is the quality in the acting that
+counts.  And the manager in choosing Polly for the special rôle he had
+desired had chosen wisely.  For it was not so much the girl's method of
+playing that had won sympathy and applause, as her manner and
+appearance.
+
+And curiously enough, though Polly was frightened the first night of
+the performance, she was not so much so as on that evening of the Camp
+Fire play the previous year, before an audience of friends.
+
+Polly felt herself at the heart of her first great adventure.  The play
+itself, the other actors and actresses, the strangeness of her
+surroundings, all occupied her to the forgetting of her own
+individuality.  It seemed as though she were only living out a kind of
+dream.  Nothing was real, nothing was actual about her.  The audience
+did not terrify her, nor the lights, nor the darkness, nor the queer
+smell of dust and paint and artificiality, that is a necessary part of
+the background of stage life.
+
+Perhaps the girl had found her element.  For there is for each one of
+us a place in this world, some niche into which one really fits.  And
+though this place may seem crowded, or ugly, or undesirable to other
+people, if it should be our own, it holds a feeling of comfort and of
+possession that no other spot can.
+
+But Polly had not been thinking of niches or elements or anything of
+the kind either tonight or during the week past.  All of her being was
+too deeply absorbed in the interest of the play and the actors and her
+own little part.
+
+At the present moment she was in hiding behind a piece of scenery,
+eagerly awaiting the cue for her own entrance; yet she was as keenly
+intent upon each detail of the acting taking place upon the stage as if
+tonight it were a first experience.
+
+The players happened to be the two persons who had been kindest and
+most helpful to her in the company.  And one of them one was the
+brown-eyed girl whose lead she had followed on the day of her own
+engagement.  Polly had been glad to make the discovery later that this
+same girl had been engaged to play the part of Grazioso's grandmother
+in "The Castle of Life."  The other actor was the star, a young man of
+about twenty-six or seven, who was impersonating Grazioso, the hero of
+the fairy story.
+
+The stage was in semi-darkness, while the grandmother related to the
+boy the tale of her first meeting with the fairies.  A small, shabby
+room revealed a low fire burning in the grate.  In an armchair sat the
+old woman, while her grandson lay on the floor at her feet with his
+head resting upon his hand.
+
+"There are two fairies," said the grandmother, "two great fairies--the
+Fairy of the Water and the Fairy of the Woods.  Ten years ago I had
+gone out at daybreak to catch the crabs asleep in the sand, when I saw
+a halcyon flying gently towards the shore.  The halcyon is a sacred
+bird, so I never stirred for fear I should scare it away.  And at the
+same time from a cleft in the mountain I saw a beautiful green adder
+appear and come gliding along the sands toward the bird.  When they
+were near each other the adder twined itself around the neck of the
+halcyon as if it were embracing it tenderly.  Then I saw a great black
+cat, who could be nothing else than a magician, hiding itself behind a
+rock close to me.  And scarcely had the halcyon and adder embraced than
+the cat sprang on the innocent pair.  This was my time to act.  I
+seized him in spite of his struggles and with the knife I used for
+opening oysters I cut off the monster's head, paws and tail.  And as
+soon as I had thrown the creature's body into the sea, before me stood
+two beautiful ladies, one with a crown of white feathers and the other
+with a scarf made of snake's skins.  They were, as I have told you, the
+Fairy of the Water and the Fairy of the Woods."
+
+With these words, Polly moved a few steps nearer the place set for her
+entrance.  On the opposite side she could see the other girl who
+impersonated the water fairy, also ready to make her entrance.  Tonight
+was New Year's eve and the house was unusually crowded.
+
+But the grandmother was continuing her speech.
+
+"Enchanted by a wicked Jinn, they were obliged to remain bird and snake
+until some hand should restore them to liberty.  To me they owed
+freedom and power.  'Ask what thou wilt,' they said, 'and thy wishes
+shall be fulfilled."
+
+"I thought how I was old and had too hard a life to wish for it over
+again.  But the day would come when nothing would be too good for thee,
+my child."  The old woman leaned over, stroking her grandson's dark
+hair.  "The Fairy of the Woods gave me a scale from the snake's skin
+and the Fairy of the Water a small white feather from her crown.  They
+are hidden in a box under some rags.  Open the box and thou wilt find
+the scale and the feather."
+
+The boy then crossed the stage and a moment later handed the box to the
+old woman, who appeared too ill to leave her chair.
+
+After bending over and listening to her instructions, he stepped
+forward nearer the footlights.  There in the center of the room was a
+bowl of water in which he placed the feather and the scale.
+
+"Wish for thyself anything thou desirest, fortune, greatness, wit,
+power," murmurs the old woman.  "But embrace me first, as I feel that I
+am dying."
+
+But Grazioso did not approach either to embrace or ask the old woman's
+blessing.
+
+"I wish my grandmother to live forever!" he cried.  "Appear, Fairy of
+the Woods.  Appear, Fairy of the Water!"
+
+And now in perfect silence Polly O'Neill made her entrance.  She moved
+very slowly forward, so slim and young and tall, with such big,
+dark-blue eyes, and such slender, elfish grace that she did not look
+like a real flesh-and-blood girl.
+
+The audience stirred, and a little breath of appreciation moved through
+it, which Polly was almost learning to expect.
+
+She wore her own black hair unbound and hanging loose below her
+shoulders.  It was made blacker by the wreath of leaves that encircled
+her head.  She was dressed in an olive-green gown of some soft,
+clinging material and a scarf of snake's skin was fastened over her
+shoulder.
+
+The Fairy of the Water followed Polly.  Her gown was white with a blue
+scarf, and she was small and blonde.  She was a pretty girl, but
+somehow there was no suggestion of the fairy about her.  One could see
+the same type of girl any time, standing behind a counter in a shop, or
+dancing at a party of young people.
+
+Polly's grace and her ardent, unconventional temperament made it easy
+to understand why the attention should be focused upon her during this
+single scene.  Besides, she had one long speech to deliver.
+
+This was the moment when the girl felt her only real nervousness.  For
+always there was the uncertainty as to whether her voice would be
+strong and full enough to be heard throughout the theater.  Tonight and
+for the first time she hesitated for a second.  Yet no one noticed it,
+except the actors near her and Esther, who had crept forth, for a
+closer view in spite of the stage regulations.
+
+"Have you forgotten your lines, child?" the leading man whispered so
+quietly that no one could overhear.
+
+But Polly only smiled, with a faint shake of her graceful head.
+
+"Here we are, my child," she began the next instant, speaking in clear,
+girlish tones that showed nothing of indecision or embarrassment.
+
+"We have heard what you said and your wish does you credit.  We can
+prolong your grandmother's life for some time.  But to make her live
+forever you must find The Castle of Life."
+
+"Madam," replied Grazioso, "I will start at once."
+
+"It is four long days' journey from here," the Fairy of the Woods
+continued.  "If you can accomplish each of these four days' journey
+without turning out of your road and if, on arriving at the castle, you
+can answer the three questions that an invisible voice will ask you,
+you will receive there all that you desire.  For there the fountain of
+immortality will be found."
+
+Then slowly the great stage curtain descended.  And this was the end of
+Polly's part in the performance, though one more ordeal was to follow.
+And though she welcomed this, Polly also dreaded it more than anything
+else.  Always a curtain call came at the close of this scene, when she
+and the Fairy of the Water, each holding a hand of Grazioso's, must
+step forth to the footlights and for an instant face the audience,
+smiling their thanks for the applause.
+
+But Polly had never been able to summon a smile, for at this moment she
+had always become self-conscious.  The glamour and the excitement of
+the theater suddenly deserted her and she felt not like a fairy or
+anything fantastic, but only like Polly O'Neill, a very untrained and
+frightened girl who was deceiving her family and friends to have this
+first taste of stage life, and who might suffer almost any kind of
+consequences: imprisonment in some boarding school, Polly feared, where
+she might never again be allowed any liberty or an equal imprisonment
+in Woodford, with no mention of the theater made in her presence as
+long as she lived.  For Polly could not determine to what lengths her
+mother's anger and disapproval of her conduct might lead her.  And she
+did mean to make her confession and face the results as soon as her two
+weeks' engagement was over.
+
+Therefore tonight she kept an even tighter clasp on Grazioso's hand
+than usual, her knees were shaking so absurdly.  And all the faces in
+the audience were swimming before her, as though they had no features
+but eyes.  Then suddenly the girl grew rigid with surprise, uncertainty
+and fear.
+
+In the second row just under the footlights she had discovered a face
+that was strangely familiar.  And yet could it be possible that this
+person of all others should be here in New York City and in the theater
+tonight, instead of in the village of Woodford?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE RECOGNITION
+
+Esther was not waiting in the accustomed place where Polly had
+previously found her when she came off the stage.  On her way to the
+dressing room she shivered a little, missing the coat that her friend
+was in the habit of wrapping about her shoulders.  The night was
+extremely cold and the back of a theater is nearly always breezy.
+
+Polly hurried faster than usual to her room--a small dark one at the
+end of a passage-way.  But even here there was no sign of Esther.  What
+could have become of her?  She was not apt to be talking with any of
+the members of the company; for both girls had decided that it was
+wiser to make themselves as inconspicuous as possible.
+
+Well, she must do her best to get out of her fairy costume and back
+into sensible garments by her own efforts.  Esther would be coming
+along in a few moments.  She could not stand idle with her teeth fairly
+chattering and those ridiculous little chills chasing themselves all
+over her.  Wouldn't it be too absurd to take cold at this particular
+time and so make a failure of her adventure?  For she would thus heap
+all the family disapproval and punishment upon her own head and incur
+the righteous indignation of everybody in the company by having to
+resign her part.
+
+Would any one ever have imagined that a garment could be so difficult
+to unfasten as this one she was now incased in?  For of course the
+stiffness and shakiness of Polly's fingers came from the zero
+temperature in her dressing room and not in the least from the
+momentary fright she had received from her supposed recognition of a
+face in the audience.  Undoubtedly she had been mistaken.  Yet why
+should she have chosen to believe that she saw about the most unlikely
+person of her acquaintance?  A guilty conscience should have conjured
+up some ghost who had more right to be present.
+
+Polly finally did succeed in getting into her street clothes without
+assistance; and though five, ten minutes passed, Esther did not appear
+in the dressing room.  Nor was she anywhere in the hall, since Polly
+had several times thrust her head out the door to look for her.
+
+Polly was a little uneasy, though assuredly nothing serious could have
+happened to Esther.  Esther had been very good to her during these past
+days, so staunch and loyal, never reproaching her or arguing once she
+had become convinced that Polly's mind was made up, and taking such
+wonderful care of her, guarding her so closely!  If ever there came a
+time when her mother, or Mollie, or Betty should attempt to blame
+Esther for her part in this escapade, Polly had determined that they
+should understand the situation in its true light.  And some day she
+might be able to return Esther's allegiance and devotion.  For always
+the opportunity to serve a friend will come if one is sufficiently on
+the lookout for it.
+
+The moment that she left her dressing room Polly ran directly into
+Esther, who was hurrying toward her.
+
+"Oh, Polly dear," she said, "I hope you haven't been worried, though I
+have been uneasy enough about you.  Do come back into your room for a
+moment.  There is something I want to tell you that no one else must
+hear."
+
+Esther looked so excited and nervous that Polly slipped an arm
+comfortingly about her.  "Don't mind if anybody has said anything rude
+or been horrid, please," she whispered.  "You know we promised each
+other not to take the disagreeable things seriously."
+
+"Oh no, it is nothing like that.  It is about you," the older girl
+explained.
+
+Polly smiled.  "The disagreeable things usually are about me."  She
+looked so absurdly young and wilful and charming that Esther felt
+herself suddenly willing to champion her cause against any opposition.
+Of course Polly had done wrong, but the mistake had been made and to
+frustrate her ambition now could do no possible good.
+
+"I don't think you understand, Polly; you can't of course.  But Billy
+Webster was in the audience just now and recognized you.  He says that
+Mollie was afraid there was something the matter and----"
+
+"Billy Webster's opinions are not of the least interest to me.  Do
+let's hurry home, Esther.  It is almost ten o'clock and though we can
+take the street car straight to your door, we have never been out this
+late before."
+
+"But Billy says he _must_ see you.  He is waiting outside.  He says he
+means to tell your mother and Mollie what you are doing unless you
+promise to return home tomorrow.  He says that if you won't promise he
+may telegraph them tonight, so your mother can come and get you
+tomorrow.  I think you had better see him."
+
+Suddenly Polly flung her arms about her friend's neck and began crying
+like a disappointed child.  One never could count on Polly's doing what
+might be expected of her.  She had had the boldness of defy opposition
+and to act successfully for a week on the professional stage; yet now
+when she most needed her nerve she was breaking down completely.
+
+"I always have hated that Billy Webster," she sobbed, "from the first
+moment I saw him.  What possible reason or right can he have to come
+spying on me in this fashion?  If he tells mother what I am doing now
+and does not give me a chance to confess, she will never forgive me.
+Neither will Mollie nor Betty nor any of the people I care about.  Rose
+and Miss McMurtry will never speak to me.  I shall be turned out of our
+Camp Fire Club.  Of course I know I deserve it.  But that Billy Webster
+should be the person to bring about my punishment is too much!
+Besides, I can't give up my part now.  Surely, Esther, you can see
+that.  Acting a week longer won't hurt me any more and----"
+
+"I think we had better see Mr. Webster, anyhow, dear," Esther insisted
+quietly.  "Perhaps we can persuade him not to tell, or else to give you
+the first opportunity."
+
+Hastily Polly dried her eyes.  She looked very white and frail as they
+went out of the room together.
+
+In a secluded corner not far from the stage door they found Billy
+Webster waiting for them.  His face was pale under his country tan.
+His blue eyes, that sometimes were charmingly humorous, showed no sign
+of humor now.  If ever there was so youthful a figure of a stern and
+upright judge, he might well have stood for the model.
+
+Polly struggled bravely to maintain her dignity.
+
+"What is your decision, Miss O'Neill?" he inquired, without wasting any
+time by an enforced greeting.  "I presume Miss Crippen has told you
+what I have made up my mind to do."
+
+Amiability was one of Esther's dominant traits of character; yet she
+would have liked to shake Billy Webster until his teeth chattered or
+suppress him in almost any way.  After all, what right had he to take
+this lofty tone with Polly?  He was not a member of her family, not
+even her friend.  Just because he had known all of them in their Camp
+Fire days in the woods and was devoted to Mrs. Wharton and to Mollie
+was not a sufficient excuse.
+
+Therefore Polly's unexpected meekness of manner and tone was the more
+surprising--and dangerous.
+
+"How did you happen to come to New York and to the theater, Billy?" she
+queried, ignoring his use of the "Miss."  Frequently in times past they
+had called each other by their first names, when good feeling happened
+to be existing between them.
+
+Instantly Billy looked a little more on the defensive.  "I--I had to
+come to New York on business," he explained sullenly.  "And Mollie had
+been telling me that she was kind of uneasy about you and that she felt
+there must be some reason you wouldn't give why you did not wish to
+come home for the holidays."
+
+"So you undertook to play detective and find out?" Polly announced in
+the cool, even tones that made Billy hot with anger and a sense of
+injustice.
+
+He was perfectly sure that he was right in his attitude toward her.
+She had been disobedient and audacious beyond his wildest conception,
+even of her.  And yet she had a skilful fashion of making the other
+fellow appear in the wrong.
+
+"I told Mollie that I would call on you and Esther," he returned,
+relapsing into his old-time familiarity.  "You see, I told her that I
+was sure things were quite all right, but I wanted to convince her too.
+I didn't think you would mind seeing me.  I thought you might even be
+glad to hear about your Woodford friends.  So as Mollie gave me your
+address, I went out to your house at about eight o'clock.  The maid
+told me that you had gone to the theater, told me which one.  Of course
+I just supposed that you had gone to see a show.  And that was pretty
+bad for two young girls!  But when I got here and the curtain went up
+and you came out!--why, Polly, I just couldn't believe it at first, and
+then I got to thinking of how your mother and Mollie would feel and
+what might happen!"  And Billy's voice shook in a very human and
+attractive fashion.
+
+Instantly Polly's hand was laid coaxingly on the young man's coat
+sleeve.  "But, Billy, seeing as now I have been and gone and done it
+already, why, think of me in any way that you please.  Only don't tell
+on me for another week.  The play is to last only through the holidays.
+And I promise on my word of honor to come home as soon as it is over
+and to tell mother every single thing."
+
+"Word of honor?" Billy repeated slightingly.  And of course, though
+Polly deserved her punishment his inflection was both rude and cruel.
+
+Up to this moment the little party of three persons had been entirely
+uninterrupted.  Now Esther heard some one coming quickly toward them.
+And turning instantly she understood the impression that this scene
+might make.  The man was the leading actor of the company, Richard
+Hunt, who in a quiet way had shown an interest and an attitude of
+protection toward Polly.  Now observing a strange young man, and
+Polly's evident agitation, it was but natural that he should suppose
+that some one was trying to annoy her.
+
+Esther flung herself into the breach.  Not for anything must a scene be
+permitted to take place!  And she could guess at Billy Webster's
+scornful disregard of a man who was an actor.  Billy was a country
+fellow with little experience of life, and broad-mindedness was not a
+conspicuous trait of his character.
+
+Esther never knew just exactly how she managed it, but in another
+moment she had confided the entire story of Polly's audacity to Mr.
+Hunt, Billy Webster's place in it, and his present intention of
+bringing retribution upon them.  She knew there was but little time for
+her story; for Mr. Hunt might be compelled to leave them on receiving
+his curtain call at any moment.  In a very surprising and good-humored
+fashion however he seemed to understand the situation at once.
+
+"I had an idea that Miss O'Neill was new to this business," he said;
+"or you would both have realized that it is not wise for a girl so
+young as she is to come to the theater without her mother or some much
+older woman to look after her.  But I believe I can appreciate
+everybody's point of view in this matter.  So why wouldn't it be well
+to have Miss O'Neill telegraph her mother herself and ask that she come
+down to New York tomorrow.  She could say there was nothing serious, so
+as not to frighten her.  And then of course they could talk things over
+together and decide what was best without any interference."
+
+But before any answer could follow his suggestion a bell sounded and
+the older man was obliged to hurry away.
+
+Esther breathed a sigh of relief.
+
+"Dear me, why had not one of us thought of this way out?" she asked.
+"Surely, Billy, you can't object to allowing Mrs. Wharton to be the
+judge in this matter?"
+
+Billy nodded.  "Of course that is the best plan."
+
+"And you, Polly?"
+
+Polly had begun to cry again.  "I want to see my mother right this
+minute," she confessed.  And then, slipping out of the stage door, she
+left Esther and Billy to follow immediately after her and in silence to
+escort her safely home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+SUNRISE CABIN AGAIN
+
+It was New Year's night.  Sunrise Cabin was no longer an empty and
+deserted place, but golden lights shone through the windows, making a
+circle of brightness outside the door.
+
+From the inside came the sound of voices and laughter and music and the
+clatter of dishes.
+
+Slowly a figure approached the door.  It was after seven o'clock and a
+sharply cold evening with a heavy snow on the ground, so there could be
+small comfort in loitering.  Yet when the figure reached its evident
+destination, instead of knocking or making an effort to enter, it
+hesitated, stopped, turned and walked away for a few steps and then
+came back again.  The second time, however, summoning a sudden courage,
+the arm shot forth, and there was a single rap on the door.  The rap
+was so imperative that in spite of the rival noises inside, the door
+opened quickly.  Then the newcomer entered and for another moment stood
+hesitating in even greater bewilderment.
+
+The great room seemed to be twinkling with a hundred bayberry candles,
+sending forth a delicious woodland fragrance.  The walls were covered
+with pine branches and the big fireplace was piled as high with burning
+fagots and pine cones as safety permitted.  A long table standing in
+the center of the room was beautifully and yet oddly decorated, and
+upon it dinner was just about to be served.
+
+Resting in the middle of its uncovered surface were three short and
+slender pine logs of the same general height and size and crossed at
+the top, while swinging from this trident was a brightly polished
+copper kettle, piled high tonight with every kind of fruit and with
+giant clusters of white and purple grapes suspended over its sides.
+Encircling the centerpiece, made not of real wood of course but of
+paper bonbons, were three groups of logs representing the insignia of
+the three orders of the Camp Fire, the wood-gatherer's logs having no
+flame, the fire-maker's a small one, while the torch-bearer's flame of
+twisted colored paper seemed to glow as though it were in truth of
+fire.  The mats on the table were embroidered in various Camp Fire
+emblems--a bundle of seven fagots, a single pine tree, or a disk
+representing the sun.  And at either end of the long table three
+candles had lately been lighted, while standing up around it at their
+appointed places were about twenty guests, the girls dressed in their
+ceremonial costumes, the young men as Boy Scouts.
+
+The effect of the entire scene was so brilliant and so unusual that
+there was small wonder that the latest comer was overwhelmed.  He
+fumbled awkwardly with his hat, cleared his throat, his face so
+crimsoning with embarrassment that actual tears were forced out of his
+eyes.  And then just as the young man was praying that the earth might
+open and swallow him up, a girl came forward from the indeterminate
+mass of persons, who appeared to be swimming in a mist before him, and
+held out her hand.
+
+"I am so glad to see you, Mr. Graham.  Nan and I were beginning to be
+afraid you would not be able to come," she said cordially.  "But you
+are just in time, as we are only sitting down to the table this very
+minute."
+
+And Meg Everett then led her final guest down what seemed to him a
+mile's length of table, placing him between two persons, whom at the
+moment he did not suppose that he had ever seen.  And before he could
+quite recover his senses there was an unexpected burst of music and
+then a cheer that filled every inch of the cabin space.
+
+"Wo-he-lo for aye, Wo-he-lo for aye, Wo-he-lo, Wo-he-lo, Wo-he-lo for
+aye!  Wo-he-lo for work, Wo-he-lo for health, Wo-he-lo, Wo-he-lo,
+Wo-he-lo for Love."
+
+And then with laughter Meg Everett's New Year dinner guests took their
+places at the table and in the pause Anthony Graham had a chance to
+pull himself together.  To his relief he found that Miss McMurtry was
+seated on his left side, and at least they were acquaintances.  For
+Miss McMurtry had also come to live in the old Ashton house and often
+passed the young man on the stairs, nodding good-night or good-morning.
+Then he had put up some book-shelves for her in her room and moved the
+furniture to her satisfaction.  So, perhaps the Camp Fire party might
+not be so wretchedly uncomfortable with one person near with whom he
+might exchange an occasional word.
+
+For just what the young man's emotions were this evening, no one except
+a person placed in a similar position could understand.  Perfectly well
+did he appreciate that Meg had asked him to her dinner only because of
+her loyalty and affection for his sister, Nan, as a member of her same
+Camp Fire Club.  The brothers of the other girls had been invited, Jim
+Meade, Frank Wharton and, of course, John Everett, besides others of
+his friends.  So to have left him out might have been to hurt Nan's
+feelings.  His sister was both proud and sensitive over his efforts to
+make a better position for himself in the village.  Yet should he have
+taken advantage of Meg's kindness and accepted her invitation?  Anthony
+was by no means certain.  This same question had been keeping him awake
+for several nights and even after having written his hostess that she
+might expect him to appear he had delayed his approach until the last
+minute.
+
+Assuredly the other young men would not enjoy his presence.  They might
+be coldly polite, but nothing more could be expected.  For no one could
+be more conscious than Anthony was at this time in his life of the
+difference between him and other men of his age, who had the advantages
+of birth and education.  Actually he could feel the grime of his own
+hands as he clutched them nervously together under the table.  Not all
+the scrubbing of the past hour could altogether rid them of the soot
+and dust that came of making fires and sweeping office floors.  And his
+clothes, although brushed until they were spotless, were worn almost
+threadbare in places.  The very shirt that Nan had washed and ironed
+for him, had had to have the frayed ends trimmed away from the
+wrist-bands.
+
+Anthony glanced across the table.  There were Nan's dark eyes smiling
+at him bravely.  She did not look in the least ashamed of him.  And as
+for Nan herself why, she was as pretty a Camp Fire girl as any one at
+the table.  Wearing their Council Fire costumes, each girl decorated
+only with the honor beads which she had won by her own efforts, the
+poorer maids and the rich ones were equally attractive.  For there were
+none of the differences in toilet which any other kind of entertainment
+might have revealed.
+
+But Nan was not only smiling at her brother, she was nodding at him and
+trying to attract his attention.  Evidently she wished him to glance
+away from Miss McMurtry to his companion on the other side.  And
+Anthony finally did manage to turn shyly half way around.
+
+Then with a sudden feeling almost of happiness he discovered that Betty
+Ashton was on his right.  She did not happen to be looking toward him
+at the moment, but was talking to John Everett with more animation than
+he had ever before seen her show.
+
+Betty had no knowledge of Anthony's having been invited to Meg's Camp
+Fire dinner.  His invitation had not come so soon perhaps as the others
+had received theirs, and afterwards for several days he had had no
+opportunity for conversation with her.  For of course living in Betty's
+house gave him no right to any pretense of friendship with her.
+
+Yet the moments were passing and she must by this time have become
+conscious of his presence.  Miss McMurtry had called him by name
+several times and no human being could be entirely oblivious of a
+person so near, unless under some peculiar stress of emotion.
+
+Anthony felt his former nervousness leaving him.  He was no longer
+blushing; his face had become white and a little stern.  So that when
+Betty finally turned to speak to the young man she had a curious
+impression that his face was unfamiliar, it wore so different an
+expression from any that she had ever seen on it before.  Betty had
+been conscious of Anthony's presence from the instant of his taking his
+place beside her and in failing to recognize him had not deliberately
+intended being rude or unkind.  At first she had been amazed and a
+little chagrined by his presence, for after what she had said to Meg
+she had not dreamed of the young man's being included among the guests.
+Yet this was Meg's entertainment and not hers, and of course she had no
+right to feel or show offense.  Only she and John Everett happened to
+be having such an interesting talk at the moment of Anthony's
+appearance, and assuredly John shared her conviction about the
+newcomer!  One could be kind to the young fellow of course, without
+admitting him within the intimate circle of friendship.  And Betty
+Ashton, although she would never have confessed it, had always been
+greatly influenced by John Everett's opinions and personality.  He was
+such a big blond giant, older and handsomer and more a man of the world
+than any other college fellow in Woodford.  She was flattered, too,
+because he had never failed on his return for holidays to show her more
+attention than any other girl in the village.  He might have other
+friendships outside of his own home; of this she could know nothing,
+but at the present time this thought only made him the more agreeable.
+Therefore it was annoying that she might be expected to waste a part of
+her evening on a young fellow for whom she felt no personal interest,
+only good will.  Betty herself was not conscious of the condescension
+in her attitude, but why did she find it so difficult to begin a
+conversation with the newcomer or even to greet him?
+
+Anthony should at least understand that it was exceedingly ill mannered
+of him to keep staring down into his plate when he must have become
+aware that she was now ready to talk with him.  But what should she say
+first?  Having failed to notice a person's existence for some time
+makes an ordinary "Good evening" appear a bit ridiculous.
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Graham?" Betty began half shyly, putting more
+cordiality into her manner than usual in an effort to atone for her
+former lack of courtesy.
+
+Then for the briefest space Anthony glanced up at her quietly, his
+grave eyes studying hers, until Betty felt her own eyelids flutter and
+was grateful for the length of her dark lashes which swept like a cloud
+before her vision.  For actually she was blushing in the most absurd
+and guilty fashion, as though she had done something for which she
+should feel ashamed.
+
+"Good evening," Anthony returned, and during the rest of the dinner
+party he never voluntarily addressed a single remark to her.
+
+Betty need not have been afraid that he might interfere with her
+opportunity for conversation with John Everett.  For although Anthony
+answered politely any questions that she put to him and listened to
+whatever she wished to say, the greater part of his time he devoted to
+talking with Miss McMurtry and to pursuing his own train of thought.
+
+For if the young man had originally been doubtful as to whether it was
+wise for him to accept Meg Everett's invitation, he was glad now with
+all his heart.  Just what this evening was giving him he had needed.
+Glancing up and down the table, his own resolution was thereby
+strengthened.  If there had been moments when he had wavered, when it
+had seemed easier to slip back into his old way of life and to enjoy
+the companions who were always ready to join hands, he could hereafter
+recall this experience and Betty's treatment of him, as well as the
+sight of the other young men guests.
+
+Some day there should be another reckoning.  These fellows were largely
+what their fathers had made them; they had birth, schooling, the
+influences of cultured homes.  But out in the big world a man's own
+grit and will and ability to keep on working in the face of every
+difficulty counted in the long run.  Anthony clenched his teeth,
+feeling his backbone actually stiffen with the strength of his
+resolution.  Then he had the humor and good sense to laugh at himself
+and to begin taking more pleasure in his surroundings.
+
+Here were all the Camp Fire girls whom his sister had talked and
+written so much about, excepting the two whose absence the others were
+lamenting, Polly and Esther.  Here also was the German professor, who
+had lately moved into the Ashton house, sitting on the further side of
+Miss McMurtry and certainly absorbing all of her attention that he
+possibly dared.  But Anthony did not mind; he had a kind of fellow
+feeling for Herr Crippen, who was poor and evidently not of much
+interest or importance in the Lady Betty's estimation.  There at the
+farther end of the table must be Miss Rose Dyer, the Camp Fire Guardian
+whom Nan cared for so deeply, and she certainly was quite as pretty as
+his sister had said.  So why should young Dr. Barton be staring at her
+so severely?  Miss Dyer was only laughing and talking idly with Frank
+Wharton; and every now and then she turned to smile and speak to the
+little girl who sat close beside her.  This must be Faith, the youngest
+of the Sunrise girls, whose mother had lately died and who was now
+living with Miss Dyer.
+
+Anthony smiled unexpectedly, so that Betty, who happened to be glancing
+toward him at the moment, was vexed over his ability to amuse himself.
+He had only just guessed why Dr. Barton found it necessary to regard
+Miss Dyer so sternly.  Anthony felt that he would like to make friends
+with this young men.  He was evidently somewhat narrow and puritanical,
+but already had offered to assist him with any of his studies should he
+need help.  And Anthony meant to take advantage of his offer and to
+interest him if he could; for Dr. Barton was just the kind of a friend
+he would like to know intimately in these early days of his struggle.
+
+Dinner was finally over, and, stupidly enough, as the guests began
+leaving the table Anthony Graham felt his own shyness and awkwardness
+returning.  They were intending to dance for the rest of the evening,
+and dancing was another of the graces that had been left out of his
+education.  However, he could find himself an inconspicuous corner
+somewhere, and it would be good enough fun to look on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+"LIFE'S LITTLE IRONIES"
+
+"Mollie O'Neill, if you don't tell me what you and Billy Webster have
+been whispering about all evening and why you look so worried, I don't
+think I can bear it a moment longer," Betty Ashton insisted, having at
+last found her friend alone for a moment, while the other girls and men
+were clearing the living room for the dance.
+
+"There isn't anything to tell.  At least there really is, but I have
+not been told just what," Mollie sighed in return.
+
+"Then of course it's Polly?"
+
+Mollie nodded.  "Early this morning before any of us were awake a
+telegram arrived from Polly begging mother to come to New York at once.
+Polly said she wasn't ill and there was nothing for us to worry over,
+but just the same Sylvia and I have been worried nearly to death all
+day.  For mother got off within a few hours.  Then late this evening
+Billy Webster appears in Woodford after his visit in New York.  And
+though he tells me that he saw Polly and Esther and has confessed that
+he knows why Polly telegraphed for mother, he won't give me the least
+satisfaction about anything.  Can you make any suggestion, Betty dear?
+What difficulty do you suppose Polly has gotten into this time?  For
+certainly it is Polly and not Esther; Esther would never be absurd."
+
+Mollie lowered her voice as several of their friends were approaching.
+
+"Please don't speak of this, Betty.  Mother left word that we were not
+to mention it outside the family until she learned exactly what was the
+matter.  But of course she said that I might tell you."
+
+Before Betty could reply John Everett had invited her to dance.
+
+But slowly she shook her head.  "I can't, John.  I know you will think
+it foolish; perhaps it is.  Of course I have come to Meg's party and
+enjoyed it very much.  And yet, well, somehow I don't feel quite like
+dancing.  You understand, don't you?"
+
+John acquiesced.  He was disappointed, and yet felt himself able to
+understand almost anything that Betty wished him to, when she looked at
+him with that appealing light in her gray eyes and that rose flush in
+her cheeks.
+
+"Never mind," he returned; "I'll find seats for us somewhere, where we
+can manage to talk and yet watch the others."
+
+Betty smiled.  It was agreeable to be so sought after, and yet under
+the circumstances quite out of the question.
+
+"You will please find me a place where I can watch, but not with you.
+This is your party, remember.  Meg will expect you and every man to do
+his duty," she replied.
+
+So after a little further discussion Betty found herself seated upon a
+kind of miniature throne, which John had made for her by piling some
+sofa cushions upon an old divan.  Behind her was a background of cedar
+and pine branches decorating the walls and just above her head
+flickered the lights of candles from a pair of brass sconces.
+
+Betty wore her red brown hair parted in the middle and in two heavy
+braids, one falling over each shoulder, while around her forehead was a
+blue and silver band with the three white feathers, the insignia of her
+title of "Princess" in their Camp Fire Club.  Her dress was cut a
+little low in the throat and about it were strung seven chains of honor
+beads.
+
+For a little while at least she might have found interest in watching
+the others dance had she not been worried about Polly.  She was uneasy
+and it was stupid to have been given this opportunity to think; for
+thinking could do no possible good.  Whatever mischief Polly had gotten
+into was sure to be beyond one's wildest imagination.  It would be much
+more agreeable if she might have some one to talk with her and so
+distract her attention.
+
+And there was one other guest beside herself who was not dancing.
+Betty flushed uncomfortably.  It must appear strange to the others to
+see Anthony sitting only a short distance away from her and yet paying
+no more attention to her presence than if they were upon opposite sides
+of the world.
+
+Once or twice Betty looked graciously toward the young man, intending
+to smile an invitation to him to sit near her, should he show the
+inclination.  For possibly he was too much embarrassed to make the
+first move.  She must remember that he had had no one to teach him good
+manners and that he was always both shy and awkward in her presence.
+
+However, at present he seemed totally unaware of her existence and not
+in the least requiring entertainment.  For he was watching the dancers
+with such profound concentration that apparently his entire attention
+was absorbed by them.
+
+The girl had an unusually good opportunity for studying the young man's
+face.  She had not noticed until tonight how thin he was and how clear
+and finely cut his features.  There was no trace of his Italian mother
+left, save in his black hair and in the curious glow which his skin
+showed underneath its pallor.  His nose was big--too big, Betty
+thought--and his lips closed and firm.  He had a kind of hungry look.
+Hungry for what? the girl wondered.  Then she had a sudden feeling of
+compunction.  Anthony might sometimes even be hungry for food, he
+worked so hard, made so little money and was so busy by day and night.
+Before tonight she might have helped him without his knowing or even
+caring, if he had guessed her purpose.  But after tonight?  Well, Betty
+felt reasonably sure that she and Anthony could never be upon exactly
+the same footing again.  For somehow she had hurt him more than she had
+intended, not realizing that any one could be at once so humble and so
+proud.  And as she had made one of those mistakes that one can never
+apologize for, there was no point in dwelling on it any longer.  Only
+she did regret by this time that deep down in her heart there must
+still linger her old narrow attitude toward money and good birth.  She
+was poor enough herself now, and yet in her case, as in so many others,
+had it not made her feel all the more pride in the distinction of her
+family?  Assuredly she had often whispered to herself that poverty did
+not matter when one bore a distinguished name.
+
+Betty smothered a sigh and a yawn.  It was tiresome to be sitting there
+thinking and reproaching herself when the others were having such a
+good time.  How splendidly Billy Webster and Mollie danced together!
+He was so strong and dictatorial, so certain of his own judgment and
+opinions.  And Mollie so gentle and yielding!  She smiled over her
+foolish romancing, and yet there was no use pretending that they would
+not make a suitable match should things turn out that way.  Mollie and
+Polly might possibly never be exactly what they had been to each other
+in the past, and Mrs. Wharton had re-married, and Sylvia would soon be
+going away to study nursing.
+
+But some one was passing close by and trying to attract her attention.
+Betty waved her hand, but when she had gone frowned a little anxiously.
+
+Edith Norton was dancing with the friend whom she had persuaded Meg to
+ask to her Camp Fire dinner, although none of the rest of the girls
+liked him.  He was a good deal older than their other young men
+acquaintances and a stranger to most of them, having only come to
+Woodford in the past six months and opened a drug store.  But he had
+been entirely devoted to Edith since, and of course as she was nearly
+twenty she should know her own mind.  Notwithstanding, Betty felt
+uneasy and uncomfortable.  They had been hearing things not to
+Frederick Howard's credit in the village, and Edith had always been
+unlike the rest of their Sunrise Camp Fire girls.  She was vainer and
+more frivolous and dreadfully tired of working in a millinery shop in
+Woodford.  This much she had confided to Betty after coming to live in
+the Ashton house.  And both Rose Dyer and Miss McMurtry were afraid
+that Edith might for this reason accept the first opportunity that
+apparently offered to make life easier for her.  So they had asked
+Betty to use her influence whenever it was possible.  Betty it was who
+had first brought Edith into their club, and Edith had always cared for
+her and admired her more than any other of her associates.
+
+Betty stirred restlessly.  Would she never be able to get away from
+serious thoughts tonight?  But the next instant she had jumped to her
+feet with a quickly smothered cry and stood with her hands clasped
+tightly over her eyes.  For all around her, in her hair falling down
+upon her shoulders and about her face were glittering sparks of heat
+and light.  They were scorching her; already she could smell the odor
+of her burning hair.  One movement the girl made to protect her head,
+then in a flash her hands were covering her eyes again.  She wanted to
+run, and yet some subconscious idea restrained her.  Running would only
+make the flames leap faster and higher.  And surely in an instant some
+one must come to her assistance; for her own low cry had been echoed by
+a dozen other voices.
+
+Then Betty felt herself roughly seized and dragged stumbling away from
+her former position, while a sudden, smothering darkness destroyed her
+breath and vision; and none too tender hands seemed to be pressing down
+the top of her head.
+
+Another moment and she was pulling feebly at the scorched coat
+enveloping her.
+
+"Please take it off.  I am all right now.  The fire must be out, and
+I'm stifling," she pleaded.
+
+But about her there followed another firm closing in of the heavy
+material.  And then the darkness lifted, showing Anthony Graham
+standing close beside her in his shabby shirt sleeves, holding his
+ruined coat in his hands.  In a terrified group near by was every other
+human being in the room, excepting Jim Meade and Frank Wharton, who
+were pulling down the burning pine and cedar branches from the wall and
+stamping out the last sparks of fire caused by the overturning of one
+of the candles.
+
+"What happened to me?  Am I much burned?" Betty asked, trying to smile
+and yet feeling her lips quiver tremulously.  "Won't somebody please
+take me home?"  Now she dared not put up her hands toward her pretty
+hair, for it was enough to try and bear the pain that seemed to be
+covering her head and shoulders like a blanket of fire.
+
+Surely the faces before her must look whiter and more terror-stricken
+than her own.  Mollie and Faith were both crying.  Betty wondered just
+why.  And Anthony Graham was staring at her with such a strange
+expression.  She wanted to thank him, to say that she was sorry and
+grateful at the same time, but could not recall exactly what had
+happened.  Then that funny Herr Crippen was shaking all over and saying
+"Mein liebes Kind," just as though it were Esther who had been hurt.
+At last, however, Rose Dyer and Dr. Barton, each with an arm about her,
+were leading her across the length of that interminable and now
+pitch-black room with a floor that seemed to be rising before her eyes
+like the waves of the sea.  And afterwards, she did not know just when,
+the cold night air brought back to her a returning consciousness, but
+with the consciousness came an even greater sense of pain.
+
+Never in after years could Betty Ashton wholly forget the drive home
+that followed.  Rose Dyer and Miss McMurtry sat on either side of her,
+sometimes talking, sometimes quiet, and now and then gently touching
+her bandaged hands.  Occasionally Dr. Barton asked her a question, to
+which she replied as calmly and intelligently as possible.  Otherwise
+she made no movement that she could help and no sound.  Anthony Graham
+drove silently and grimly forward at the utmost speed that the two
+livery-stable horses could attain.  And although to Betty the journey
+seemed to last half a lifetime, in reality it had seldom been
+accomplished in so short a time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE INVALIDS
+
+Sylvia Wharton wearing a trained nurse's costume tiptoed into a
+darkened room.
+
+Instantly the figure upon the bed turned and sighed.
+
+"I don't see why she does not come to me, if she is no worse than you
+say she is," the voice said.  "Really, Sylvia, I think it would be
+better for you or some one to tell me the truth."
+
+Sylvia hesitated.  "She isn't so well, Betty dear.  Perhaps Dr. Barton
+may be angry with me, as he distinctly said that you were not to be
+worried.  But as you are worrying anyhow, possibly talking things over
+with me may make you feel better.  It has all been most unfortunate,
+Polly's being ill here in your house when you were enduring so much
+yourself.  But it all comes of mother's and everybody's yielding to
+whatever Polly O'Neill wishes."
+
+Sylvia sat down upon the side of the bed, taking one of Betty's hands
+in hers.  Ten days had passed since the accident at the cabin and the
+burns on Betty's hands had almost entirely healed, but over her eyes
+and the upper part of her face was a linen covering, so that it was
+still impossible to guess the extent of her injury.  She was apt to be
+quieter, however, Sylvia had found out, when she could feel some one
+touching her.  And now the news of Polly for the time being kept her
+interested.
+
+"You see, mother's first mistake was in not bringing Polly straight
+back home as soon as she found out what she was doing in New York.
+Polly had a slight cold then and it kept getting worse each night.  But
+of course Polly pretended that it amounted to nothing and that the
+stars would fall unless she finished her engagement.  So finish it she
+did, and then hearing of your accident toward the last, as mother and
+Esther had kept the news a secret from her for some time, why come here
+she would instead of immediately going home.  She wanted to help nurse
+and amuse you and you had said that you wanted her with you.  And then
+of course Polly was embarrassed over meeting father and Frank.  And
+father was angry at her disobedience and her frightening mother and
+Mollie.  However, that cold of hers has kept on getting worse and she
+will have to stay in bed now for a few days anyhow.  For I won't let
+Polly O'Neill have her own way this time."
+
+A faint smile showed itself on Betty's lips which Sylvia stooped low
+enough to see.  And then in spite of her own stolid and supposedly cold
+temperament, the younger girl's expression changed.  For it meant a
+good deal for any one to have succeeded in making Betty Ashton smile in
+these last few days.
+
+"But you're fonder of Polly than you are of the rest of us, even
+Mollie, Sylvia, and you let her lead you around," Betty argued.
+
+Sylvia's flaxen head was resolutely shaken.  She no longer wore her
+hair in two tight pigtails, but in almost as closely bound braids wound
+in a circle about her face.  Her complexion was still colorless and her
+eyes nondescript, but Sylvia's square chin and her resolute expression
+often made persons take a second look at her.  It was seldom that one
+saw so much character in so young a girl.
+
+"Yes, I am fond of Polly," she agreed, "but you are mistaken if you
+think I let her influence me.  Some one has to take Polly O'Neill
+sensibly for her own sake."  And Sylvia just in time stifled a sigh.
+For of course her stepsister was in a more serious condition than she
+had confessed to the other girl.  It was well enough to call the
+illness a bad cold--it was that, but possibly something worse,
+bronchitis, pneumonia--Dr. Barton had not yet given it a name.  She was
+only to be kept quiet and watched.  Later on he would know better what
+to say.  Her constitution was not strong.
+
+Some telepathic message, however, must have passed from one friend to
+the other, for at this instant Betty sat up suddenly with more energy
+than she had yet shown.
+
+"If anything dreadful happens to Polly, I shall never forgive Esther as
+long as I live.  It is all very well for Polly and your mother to
+insist that Esther was not in any possible way responsible.  Mollie and
+I both feel differently.  Esther should have told----"
+
+By the fashion in which Sylvia Wharton arose and walked away from the
+bed, Betty realized how intensely their opinions disagreed, although
+the younger girl moved quietly, with no anger or flurry and made no
+reply.
+
+"Here are some more roses, Betty, that John Everett sent you.  Shall I
+put them near enough your bed to have you enjoy their fragrance?"
+Sylvia asked.  "John seems to be buying up all the flowers near
+Dartmouth.  I told Meg that you would rather he did not send so many.
+But she says she can't stop him.  For somehow John feels kind of
+responsible for your getting hurt, as he arranged for you to sit under
+those particular candles.  Then he did not notice when you first called
+for help and let Anthony Graham rescue you.  Meg is downstairs now with
+your mother.  Would you like to see her?"
+
+Betty shook her head.  "Please don't let Meg know, but I don't feel
+like talking, somehow.  The girls are so sweet and sympathetic.  And I
+try to be brave, but until I know----"
+
+With magically quick footsteps the younger girl had again crossed the
+room and her firm arms were soon about her friend's shoulders.
+
+"You are going to be all right, dear.  Dr. Barton is almost sure of it
+and I am quite.  There won't be any scars that will last and your
+eyes--why, you protected them marvelously, and they only need resting.
+You are too beautiful, Betty dear, to have anything happen that could
+in any way mar you.  I can't, I won't believe it."
+
+And somehow Sylvia was one of those people in whose judgment and faith
+one must always find healing.  Betty said nothing more, only put out
+her hand with an appealing gesture and caught hold of Sylvia's dress.
+
+"I don't want to talk or to see people, and I'm tired of being read to.
+What is there for me to do, Sylvia child, to make the hours pass?"
+
+Rather desperately the younger girl looked about the great, sunshiny
+room.  It was not Betty's old blue room, but the room once used as a
+store-room and afterwards occupied by Esther, into which Betty had
+moved a short while before her accident.  Imagination was not Sylvia
+Wharton's strong point.  She was an excellent nurse, quiet, firm and
+patient and always to be relied upon.  But what to do to make Betty
+Ashton stop thinking of what might await her at the end of her weeks of
+suffering must have taxed a far more fertile brain than Sylvia's.
+However, the suggestion did not have to come from her; for at this
+instant there was a knock at the door, so gentle that it was difficult
+to be sure that it really was a knock.
+
+Outside stood the German professor with his violin under his arm.  And
+he looked so utterly wretched and uneasy that Sylvia wondered how he
+could feel so great an emotion over Betty, although the entire village
+seemed to be worrying as though in reality she had been their own
+"Princess."  No one could talk of anything else until her condition
+became finally known; but Herr Crippen was a newcomer and Betty had
+never cared for him.
+
+"Would the little _Fräulein_ like it that I should play for her?" he
+now asked gently.
+
+And Sylvia turned to the girl on the bed.
+
+At first Betty had shaken her head, but now she evidently changed her
+mind.
+
+"You are very kind.  I think I should enjoy it," she answered.  And a
+few moments afterwards Sylvia stole away.
+
+So there was no one in the room to notice how frequently Herr Crippen
+had to wipe his glasses as he looked down upon the girl of whose face
+he could see nothing now save the delicately rounded chin and full red
+lips.
+
+[Illustration: The professor had to wipe his glasses]
+
+Then without worrying her he began to play: in the beginning not
+Beethoven nor Mozart, nor any of the classic music he most loved, but
+the Camp Fire songs, which he had lately arranged for the violin
+because of his interest in the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire girls, and which
+he was playing for the first time before an audience.
+
+And Betty listened silently, not voicing her surprise.  The song of
+"The Soul's Desire," what memories it brought back of Esther and their
+first meeting in this room!  No wonder that Esther had so great talent
+with such a queer, gifted father.  Betty wondered idly what the mother
+could have been like.  She was an American and beautiful, so much she
+remembered having been told.
+
+Then ceasing to think of Esther she began thinking of herself.  Could
+she ever again even try to follow the Law of the Camp Fire, which had
+meant so much to her in the past few years, if this dreadful tragedy
+which hovered over her, sleeping or waking, should be not just a
+terrible fear, but a living fact.  Should she be scarred from her
+accident, or worse fear, should her eyes be affected by the scorching
+heat of the flames?
+
+Softly under her breath, even while listening with all her soul to the
+music, Betty repeated the Camp Fire Law.
+
+"Seek Beauty?"  Could she find it, having lost her own?  Then she
+remembered that the beauty which the Camp Fire taught was not only a
+physical beauty, but the greater kind which is of the spirit as well as
+of the flesh.
+
+"Give Service?"  Well, perhaps some day in ways she could not now
+imagine, she might be able to return a small measure of the service
+that her friends had been so generously bestowing upon her.
+
+"Pursue Knowledge, Be Trustworthy."  No misfortune need separate a girl
+from these ideals.
+
+"Hold on to Health."  This might mean a harder fight than she had ever
+yet had to make before, but Betty felt a new courage faintly struggling
+within her.
+
+"Glorify Work."  That was not an impossible demand of her as a Torch
+Bearer among her group of Camp Fire girls.  It was the last of the
+seven points of their great law that she dreaded to face at this
+moment, here in the darkness alone.
+
+"Be Happy."  Could she ever again be happy even for a day or an hour?
+And yet the law said: "If we have pain, to hide it, if others have
+sorrow, be quick to relieve it."
+
+But what the rest of the law read she could not now recall.  For Herr
+Crippen was beginning to play one of the most exquisite pieces of music
+that can ever be rendered on the violin, Schubert's Serenade.
+
+  "Last night the nightingale woke me,
+  Last night when all was still
+  It sang in the golden moonlight"
+
+
+Betty wondered why the music should sound so strangely far away, as
+though she were dreaming and it were coming to her somewhere out of the
+land of dreams.
+
+Another moment and Betty was sound asleep.  Nevertheless the Professor,
+with his eyes still upon her, played softly on, played until Mrs.
+Ashton noiselessly entered the room.
+
+Then he ceased and the man and woman, standing one on either side of
+Betty's bed, looked at each other with expressions it would be
+difficult to translate.  For each face held a certain amount of
+pleading and of defiance.
+
+"She is like her mother; _nicht wahr_?" the Professor murmured, and
+then withdrew.
+
+Afterwards for several moments Mrs. Ashton's eyes never ceased
+regarding the curls of Betty's red brown hair, that lay outside on her
+pillow.  Her long braids had been cut off and latterly she had been
+wearing a little blue silk cap, which had now slipped off on account of
+her restlessness.
+
+Mrs. Ashton, glancing in a mirror at her own faded flaxen hair, sighed.
+Then, seating herself in a chair near by she waited in absolute
+patience and quietness, until suddenly from a movement upon the bed she
+guessed that Betty was waking.
+
+And actually her child's lips were smiling upon her not only bravely
+but cheerfully, as though her sleep had brought both comfort and faith.
+
+"Sit close by me, mother," Betty said, "and don't let any one else come
+in for a long time.  You know I have been trying to get you to tell me
+the history of this old room for ages and now this is such a splendid
+comfy chance.  I am just exactly in the mood for hearing a long,
+thrilling story."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+"WHICH COMES LIKE A BENEDICTION"
+
+"Tell me exactly what you think, Dr. Barton, please, and don't try to
+deceive me," Betty Ashton pleaded.  "I want to be told the truth at
+once before mother or any one else joins us.  Always I shall be
+grateful to Rose for suggesting that you come here to me alone and when
+no one was expecting you, so that there need be no unnecessary
+suspense."
+
+Betty Ashton was seated in a low rocking chair one morning a few days
+later, with Dr. Barton standing near and carefully unwrapping the
+bandages from about her head.  The room was not brightly lighted,
+neither was it dark, for a single blind had been drawn up at the window
+on the opposite side of the room.
+
+Dr. Barton's face showed lines of anxiety and sympathy.  Indeed, Rose
+Dyer could hardly have been persuaded to believe how nervous and shaken
+he appeared and how, instead of his usual look of hardness and
+austerity, he was now as tender and gentle as a woman.
+
+"But my dear Betty," he returned in a more cheerful voice than his
+expression indicated, "what I say to you about yourself is by no means
+the last word.  My opinion, you must remember, is of blessedly little
+importance.  If there are any scars left by my treatment of your burns,
+there are hundreds of wonderful big doctors who can perform miracles
+for you.  And then time is the eternal healer."
+
+"Yes, I know," the girl answered, "but just the same, please hurry and
+let me know what you yourself honestly think.  At least, I shall be
+able to tell myself whether my eyes are injured, as soon as you let me
+try them in a bright light."
+
+For a fraction of a moment Dr. Barton delayed his work.  "Won't you
+allow me to call your mother, or Miss Dyer or Miss McMurtry?  Miss Dyer
+is in the house.  I happen to have seen her.  And it may be better, in
+case you do not feel yourself, to have some one else here to care for
+you.  There is Sylvia.  Actually I believe she has been of as much use
+to you and Polly O'Neill as your professional nurses."
+
+At this instant, although she had set her lips so close together that
+only a pale line showed, Betty's chin quivered, and although her hands
+gripped the sides of her chair so hard that her arms ached, her
+shoulders shook.
+
+If only Dr. Barton would cease his perfectly futile efforts to distract
+her attention.  Could any human being think of another subject or
+person at a time like this?
+
+And Dr. Barton did recognize the clumsiness of his own efforts, only
+his conversation was partly intended to conceal his own anxiety.
+
+"Don't I hear some one coming along the hall?  Are you sure you locked
+the door?" Betty queried uneasily.
+
+Dr. Barton did not reply.  At this instant, although the linen covering
+still concealed his patient's eyes, he had removed the upper bandages,
+so that now her forehead was plainly revealed to his view.
+
+And Betty Ashton's forehead had always been singularly beautiful in the
+past, low and broad with the hair growing in a soft fringe about it and
+coming down into a peak in the center.  Now, however, across her
+forehead there showed a long crimson line, almost like the mark from
+the blow of a whip.  Dr. Barton examined it closely, touched it gently
+with the tips of his fingers and then cleared his throat and attempted
+to speak.  But apparently the needed words would not come.  On either
+side the ugly scar the girl's skin was white and fine as delicate silk
+and on top of her head, which had been protected by her heavy hair, the
+burns had almost completely healed.
+
+"It is all right, Miss Betty," Dr. Barton said in a curiously husky
+voice.  "You are better than I even dared hope.  There is a scar now,
+but I can promise you that it will be only a faint line in the future,
+or else will disappear altogether.  The very fact that the trouble has
+concentrated into the one scar shows that the healing has taken place
+all about it."
+
+Betty's own hands slipped the final covering from about her eyes.  Then
+for a moment her heart seemed absolutely to have stopped beating.  For
+the room swam around her in a kind of disordered dimness.  She could
+see nothing clearly.  In a panic she sprang to her feet, when Dr.
+Barton took a firm hold on her shaking shoulders.
+
+"Be quiet, child.  Pull yourself together for just a minute.  You are
+frightened now, you know.  In another moment things will clear up and
+grow more distinct."
+
+And even before he had finished speaking Betty realized this to be the
+blessed truth.
+
+There in the far end of the big room stood her bed and, on a table
+near, a bunch of John's pink roses.  She could even see their bright
+color vividly.  In another direction was her dressing table and about
+it hung the photographs of Rose, of Miss McMurtry, of the eleven Camp
+Fire girls.
+
+Dropping back into her chair Betty, covering her face with her hands,
+began to sob.  And she cried on without any effort at self-control
+until she was limp and exhausted, although all the while her heart was
+saying its own special hymn of thanksgiving.  And young Dr. Barton kept
+patting her upon the shoulder and urging her not to cry, because now
+there was nothing to cry about, until Betty would like to have laughed
+if the tears had not been bringing her a greater relief.  How like a
+man not to understand that she could now permit herself the indulgence
+of tears, when for the past two weeks she had not dared, fearing that
+once having given way there would be no end.
+
+"Would you mind leaving me for a few minutes and trying to find
+mother?" Betty at last managed to ask.
+
+She wanted to be alone.  But a few seconds after the doctor's
+disappearance, Betty got up and with trembling knees managed to cross
+her room, feeling dreadfully weak and exhausted from the long suspense.
+For she wished to look into a mirror with no one watching.  And as
+Betty Ashton got the first glimpse of herself, although vanity had
+never been one of her weaknesses, she honestly believed that she never
+had seen any one look so tragically ugly before in her entire life.
+She hardly recognized herself.  Her face was white and thin, almost
+bloodless except for the scar upon her forehead.  Then her hair had
+been cut off, and though in some places the curls still remained heavy
+and thick, in others she looked like a badly shorn lamb.
+
+And this time the tears crowding Betty's eyes were not of relief but of
+wounded vanity.
+
+"I never saw any one so hideous in my life," she remarked aloud.  "And
+I am truly sorry for the people who must have the misfortune of looking
+at me."
+
+Betty was wearing an Empire blue dressing gown and slippers and
+stockings of the same color.  Her eyes were dark gray and misty with
+shadows under them.  She looked ill, of course, and unlike her usual
+self, and yet it would be difficult for any misfortune to have made
+Betty Ashton actually ugly.  For beauty is one of the most difficult
+things in the world to define and one of the easiest to see--a
+possession that is at once tangible and intangible.  And Betty
+possessed the gift in a remarkable degree.
+
+Therefore she did not look unattractive to the eyes of the young man
+who was now staring at her in astonishment, fear and delight, from her
+own open doorway, which Dr. Barton, on leaving the room, had neglected
+to close.
+
+"I am sorry.  Oh, I am so glad!"
+
+Anthony Graham murmured.  "I was passing your room; I didn't mean to
+intrude.  But nothing matters now you are well again and looking like
+yourself.  It's so wonderful, so splendid, so----"  And the young man,
+who was ordinarily quiet and reserved, fairly stammered with the rush
+of his own words.
+
+Betty walked shyly toward him with her eyes still filled with tears.
+
+"Oh, I am dreadful to look at, but I must not complain," she answered
+wistfully.  "A Camp Fire girl ought to have learned some lessons in
+bravery and endurance.  Please let's don't talk about me.  I want to
+thank you, for if it had not been for you, I might have--I can't bear
+to think even now what might have happened to me."
+
+"Then don't," the young man returned brusquely, but Betty did not this
+time misunderstand his manner.  "I did not do anything.  I ought to
+have gotten to you sooner.  I have been hating myself ever since for
+the time I took to reach you.  After all you had done for me in the
+past!"
+
+The next moment the girl put her hand into the boy's hard,
+work-roughened one.  "Ask Nan to tell the others for me.  And remember
+that no matter what has happened or may happen in the future, I shall
+always feel myself in your debt, not you in mine."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+SECRETS
+
+It was sundown.  The big Ashton house, although so filled with people,
+was oddly quiet.  Betty Ashton slipped out of her own room into the
+hall and hurried along the empty corridor.  Once only she stopped and
+smiled, partly from amusement and partly from satisfaction.  Herr
+Crippen's door was half open and so was Miss McMurtry's and the
+Professor was playing on his violin.  Such sentimental love ditties!
+The air throbbed with German love songs.
+
+And Betty had a mischievous desire to stick her head into Miss
+McMurtry's room and see if she was engaged in some maiden-like
+occupation, such as marking school papers or reading the _Woodford
+Gazette_.  Or was she sitting, as she should be, with her hands idly
+folded in her lap and her heart and mind absorbed in the music?  Never
+had Betty given up her idea that a romance was in the making between
+their first Camp Fire guardian and Esther's father.  And often since
+their coming to live in her house had she not seen slight but
+convincing evidences?  Why should Donna so often appear with a single
+white rose pinned to her dress or take to playing the same tunes on the
+piano that the Professor played on his violin, particularly when she
+was an exceedingly poor pianist?
+
+Nevertheless it was not awe of her teacher and guardian that kept Betty
+from investigating the state of her emotions at this moment; neither
+was it any fear of antagonism between them, for since Esther's
+departure to study in New York, Miss McMurtry apparently felt more
+affection for Betty than for any of the other Camp Fire girls.  No, it
+was simply because she had a very definite purpose which she wished to
+accomplish without interruption or opposition.
+
+The next instant and she had paused outside a closed door and stood
+listening tensely.  There were no noises inside, no voices, nor the
+stir of any person moving about.  Betty put her hand on the knob and
+opened it silently.
+
+Instantly there was a little cry and Betty and Polly O'Neill were in
+each other's arms.
+
+"Betty, you darling," Polly gasped, "turn on every light in this room
+and let me stare and stare at you.  There isn't anything in the world
+the matter with you.  You are as lovely as you ever were.  Oh, I have
+been so frightened!  I have not believed what anybody told me, and it
+seemed it must be a part of my punishment that you had been injured.
+It is absurd of me, I suppose, but I have had a kind of feeling that
+perhaps if I had been at Meg's party I should have been with you at the
+time so that it couldn't have happened."
+
+"Foolish Polly!  But when was Polly anything but foolish?" the other
+girl returned, taking off her cap and pushing back her hair.  "You see
+I am a sight, dear, but it does not matter a great deal.  I am kind of
+getting used to myself these last few days.  So I didn't see any reason
+why, since you are better and I am perfectly well, we could not be
+together.  Even if it does give you a kind of a shock to look at me,
+you'll get over it, won't you?"
+
+In reply Polly had one of her rather rare outbursts of affection.  She
+was never so demonstrative as the other girls.  Her devotions had ways
+of expressing themselves in an occasional compliment tendered perhaps
+in some whimsical, back-handed fashion, or in a fleeting caress, which
+came and was gone like the touch of a butterfly's wing.
+
+Now, however, she took her friend's face between her two hands and
+kissed her quietly, almost solemnly upon the line of her injury.
+
+"Never say a thing like that to me again as long as you live, Betty
+Ashton.  Perhaps I haven't as much affection as other people.  Mother
+and Mollie are both insisting it lately.  Still I know that----but how
+silly we are to talk of it!  You are not changed.  Of course I am sorry
+that your hair had to be cut off, but it will grow out again and the
+scar will disappear.  I wish I could get rid of my"--Polly
+hesitated--"blemishes so easily," she finished.
+
+Betty looked puzzled.  "What do you mean?  Sylvia says you are very
+much better and that there is no reason why you should not get up.  She
+declares that it is only that you won't and that she does not intend
+nursing you or letting any one else take care of you after a few days,
+unless you do what Dr. Barton tells you.  Sylvia is a dreadfully firm
+person.  She was quite angry with me when I said that I did not believe
+you were well and that I was quite strong enough now to take care of
+you and you should not get out of bed until you had entirely recovered."
+
+"But I have entirely recovered and I am well and somehow I can't manage
+to deceive Sylvia Wharton no matter how hard I try," Polly announced in
+a half-amused and half-annoyed manner.
+
+"Then why are you trying to?" Betty naturally queried.  Of course one
+never actually expected to understand Polly O'Neill's whims, but now
+and then one of them appeared a trifle more mysterious than the others.
+"If you are still tired and feel you prefer to remain in bed, that is a
+sure sign you are not strong enough to get up, and Dr. Barton and
+Sylvia ought to realize it," she continued, still on the defensive.
+
+But Polly only smiled at her.  "But, dear, I don't prefer to remain in
+bed.  I am so deadly bored with it that as soon as I am left alone I
+get up and dance in the middle of the floor just to have a little
+relief.  Can't you and mother and Mollie understand (I don't believe
+any one does except Sylvia) that I don't want to get up because I don't
+want to have to face the music?"
+
+Still the other girl looked puzzled.
+
+"Can't you see that as long as I have been able to be sick nobody has
+dared to say very much to me about my escapade in New York?  Oh, of
+course I know what they think and mother did manage to say a good deal
+before we came home; still, there is a great deal more retribution
+awaiting me.  In the first place, I shall have to go home to the
+Wharton house.  I realize it has been dreadful, my being sick here, but
+I am everlastingly grateful to you and your mother.  Mr. Wharton won't
+say anything much; he really is very kind to me; but naturally I know
+what he thinks.  And then when Frank Wharton is there it will be so
+much worse.  You see, Frank and I quarreled once, because I thought he
+was rude to mother.  And of course he considers my disobedience worse
+than his rudeness.  And as he is perfectly right, I can't imagine how I
+shall answer him back the next time we argue."
+
+As Polly talked she had risen into a sitting posture in bed and was now
+leaning her chin on her hand in a characteristic attitude and quite
+unconscious of the amusing side to her argument until Betty laughed.
+
+Polly had on a scarlet flannel dressing sacque and her hair was tied
+with scarlet ribbons.  And indeed her cheeks were almost equally vivid
+in color.
+
+"But there isn't anything funny about my punishment, Betty dear.  And
+the worst of it is that I know I deserve all of it and more and shan't
+ever have the right to complain.  Mother declares that she does not
+expect to allow me to leave Woodford again until I am twenty-one, since
+she has no more faith in me.  And then, and then--" Polly's entire face
+now changed expression--"has any one told you that my behavior is to be
+openly discussed at the next meeting of our Camp Fire Club?  Perhaps I
+won't be allowed to be a member any longer."
+
+Instantly Betty jumped up from her kneeling position by the bed and
+commenced walking up and down the length of the room, saying nothing at
+first, but with her lips set in obstinate lines.
+
+"But it isn't the custom of Camp Fire clubs to act as both judge and
+jury, is it, Polly?" she inquired.  "At least, I have never heard of
+any other club's undertaking such a task.  We are allowed, I know, to
+be fairly free in what we do in our individual clubs, but somehow this
+action seems unkind and dangerous.  For if once we begin criticising
+one another's faults or mistakes, after a while there won't be any
+club.  Right now Edith Norton is behaving very foolishly, I think, but
+I wouldn't dream of even discussing her with you or any one of the
+girls.  I----"  Betty paused to get her breath, her indignation and
+opposition to Polly's information overwhelming her.
+
+But Polly held out both hands, entreating her to sit beside her again.
+
+"You are mistaken.  I did not explain the circumstances to you as I
+should have.  It is all my idea and my plan to have the girls consider
+my misconduct and find out how they feel about me," Polly explained
+quietly.  "I spoke of it first to Rose and then to Miss McMurtry and at
+first they thought in a measure as you do.  But I don't agree with you.
+You remember that our honor beads come to us for obedience and service
+to our Camp Fire laws.  Why should not disobedience make us unworthy to
+wear them?  In the old days if an Indian offended against the laws of
+his tribe he was made to suffer the penalty.  And I don't want you
+girls to keep me in our club just because you are sorry for me and are
+too kind to be just.  Mollie has told me how horrified Meg and Eleanor
+and Nan are, and of course Rose and Donna have not pretended to hide
+their disapproval, even during their consolation visits to me as an
+invalid.  But you will forgive me, won't you, Betty?"  Polly ended with
+more penitence than she had yet shown to any one save her mother.
+
+"Of course I forgive you.  But if you had not gotten well I should
+never have forgiven Esther," the other girl answered.
+
+Two fingers were laid quickly across Betty Ashton's lips.
+
+"Don't be unfair and absurd," Polly protested; "for some day you may be
+sorry if you don't understand just how big and generous Esther Crippen
+is.  It isn't only that she would sacrifice her own desires for other
+people's, but that she actually has.  I would not be surprised if
+Esther did not have some secret or other."  And Polly stopped suddenly,
+biting her tongue.  Not for worlds would she even in the slightest
+fashion betray a suspicion or inference of her own concerning the
+friend who had been so loyal and devoted to her.
+
+Fortunately Betty was too intent upon her own thoughts to have heard
+her.
+
+"I have to go back to my own room now, but you are not to worry, Polly
+mine, not about anything.  In the first place, you are not to go home
+very soon.  I have talked to your mother and mine and persuaded them
+that I need to have you stay on here with me.  I do need you, Polly.
+It is queer, but I want you to come and sleep in the old back room with
+me.  I have gotten nervous being in there by myself.  There is a
+mystery about the room greater than I have dreamed.  I have only been
+joking half the time when I have spoken of it.  But the other day I got
+mother to the point where there was no possible excuse for her not
+explaining the entire reason for her attitude and Dick's toward the
+place, when suddenly she broke down and left me.  We might amuse
+ourselves while we are invalids discovering whether or not it is
+haunted.  Only I don't exactly wish to make the discovery alone."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE LAW OF THE FIRE
+
+Mollie O'Neill walked slowly toward the Ashton house one afternoon not
+long afterwards at about four o'clock, looking unusually serious and
+uncomfortable.  She was wearing a long coat buttoned up to her chin and
+coming down to the bottom of her dress, and was carrying a big book.
+
+"Mollie, there isn't anything the matter?  Neither Betty nor Polly is
+worse again?" Billy Webster inquired, unexpectedly striding across from
+the opposite side of the street and not stopping to offer his greeting
+before beginning his questioning.
+
+Mollie shook her head, although her face still retained so solemn an
+expression that the young man was plainly alarmed.  Ordinarily Mollie's
+blue eyes were as untroubled as blue lakes and her forehead and mouth
+as free from the lines of care or even annoyance.
+
+Billy Webster put the book under his arm and continued walking along
+beside her.
+
+"If there is anything that troubles you, Mollie, and you believe that I
+can help you, please don't ever fail to call on me," he suggested in
+the gentle tones that he seemed ever to reserve for this girl alone.
+"I know that Polly is dreadfully angry over my interference in New
+York, but so long as you and your mother thought I did right and were
+grateful to me, I don't care how Polly feels--at least, I don't care a
+great deal.  And I believe I should behave in exactly the same way if I
+had it all to do over again."
+
+Shyly and yet with an admiration that she did not attempt to conceal
+Mollie glanced up at her companion.  Billy was always so determined, so
+sure of his own ideas of right and wrong, that once having made a
+decision or taken a step, he never appeared to regret it afterwards.
+And this attitude under the present circumstances was a consolation to
+Mollie.  For oftentimes since Polly's return and while enduring her
+reproaches, she had experienced twinges of conscience for having
+concerned an outsider in their family affairs, though somehow Billy did
+not seem like an outsider.  Polly had insisted that she had been most
+unwise in asking him to look up Esther and herself immediately upon his
+arrival in New York.  How much better had she waited and let Polly make
+her confession to their mother later, thus saving all of them
+excitement and strain!  However, since Billy was still convinced that
+he would do the same thing over again in a similar position, Mollie
+felt her own uncertainty vanish.
+
+"No, there isn't anything you can help about this afternoon," she
+replied.  "I am only going to a monthly meeting of our Council Fire.
+The girls told me that if I liked I need not come, yet it seems almost
+cowardly to stay away.  For you see Polly has insisted that we talk
+over her conduct and decide whether or not we wish her to remain a
+member of our club.  Or at least whether some of her honor beads should
+be taken from her and her rank reduced.  There is a good deal of
+difference of opinion.  For some of the girls are convinced that once
+our honor beads are lawfully won, nothing and no one has the right to
+take them from us; while others feel that breaking the law of the Camp
+Fire should render one unworthy of a high position in the Council and
+that even though one is not asked to resign, at least one should be
+relegated to the ranks again.  But of course all this is a secret and
+must never be spoken of except in our club."
+
+"Like an officer stripped of his epaulettes," Billy murmured.  And
+afterwards: "See here, Mollie, if this is a club secret then you ought
+not to have told me and I ought not to have listened.  For it is pretty
+rough on Polly.  But I promise not to mention it and will try to
+forget.  We must not make her any more down upon me than she is
+already."
+
+The young man and girl had now come to the Ashton front gate, and as
+they stopped, Billy gave the book to Mollie and could not forbear
+patting her encouragingly upon the coat sleeve.  She looked so gentle
+and worried.  Polly always seemed to be getting her into hot water
+without really intending that Mollie should be made to suffer.
+
+"It will turn out all right, I am sure," he insisted in a convincing
+tone.  "Your sister will always have too many friends to let things go
+much against her in this world."
+
+Mollie found that the other girls had already assembled in the Ashton
+drawing room and, as she was late, the camp fire had been laid and
+lighted, following the same ceremony as if it had taken place outdoors.
+
+The members were all present excepting Polly, who had declined coming
+down to make her own defense, and Esther, who was still at work in New
+York.  The two Field girls, Juliet and Beatrice, completed the original
+number, as they were both in Woodford for the winter attending the High
+School.  Rose Dyer, with Faith's hand tight in hers, appeared uneasy
+and distressed.  In her rôle of Camp Fire Guardian she was not assured
+of the wisdom of their proceedings and could find no precedent for it
+among other Camp Fire clubs.  However, Miss McMurtry had consented to
+join their meeting and, as she had been the original and was now the
+head Guardian of all the clubs in Woodford, the responsibility might
+honestly be shared with her.
+
+For the first time since her accident Betty Ashton was able to attend a
+gathering of the Council Fire; and although she was the center of the
+greater part of the attention and affection in the room, Betty appeared
+as nervous and worried as Mollie O'Neill.
+
+To both of the girls this open discussion of one of their club member's
+misdeeds was abhorrent.  And that the accused should be their adored
+but often misguided Polly made the situation the more tragic and
+distasteful.
+
+Although she was not yet in a position to be positive, Betty felt
+reasonably convinced that Edith Norton was at the bottom of this formal
+judgment of Polly.  So skilfully and quietly had the older girl gone to
+work that both Rose Dyer and Miss McMurtry were under the impression
+that the original suggestion had come from the culprit herself.
+
+Yet the truth was that Edith Norton had a smaller nature than any other
+member of the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire Club and she and Polly had never
+been real friends since the night long ago of the Indian "Maiden's
+Feast," when Edith thinking to fix the guilt of a theft upon Nan
+Graham, had wakened Polly to a sudden sense of her own responsibility.
+And it was following a visit of condolence to Polly's sick room by
+Edith that swift as a flash Polly had announced herself as willing and
+ready to have her conduct considered by the club council.  For it
+afterwards appeared that Edith had casually mentioned that the other
+girls had been talking among themselves of this question of Polly's
+fitness or unfitness to continue a "Torch Bearer" in the club.  So with
+her usual recklessness and impulsiveness she had insisted that her
+offense be openly considered and that she receive whatever punishment
+might be considered just.  Never had she planned denying her misdeed
+nor taking refuge behind her friends' affection.
+
+Therefore both Betty and Mollie had been entreated, even ordered, to
+listen quietly to whatever might be said of her behavior and without
+protest.  And Mollie had agreed.  Betty had reserved the right to use
+her own discretion and had no intention of not making herself felt when
+the moment arrived.
+
+After the regular business of the meeting had been concluded a marked
+silence followed, the girls hardly daring even to glance toward one
+another.
+
+Rose Dyer coughed nervously, yet as she had been chosen to set Polly's
+case plainly before the other girls and to ask for their frank opinions
+of what action, if any, the Sunrise Hill Club desired to take, her
+responsibility must not be evaded.  Of course all of the girls had
+previously heard the entire story, but perhaps in a more or less highly
+colored fashion.  And particularly Polly O'Neill insisted that Esther
+Crippen's part in her action be explained.  For Esther must not be held
+in any way accountable, as both Betty and Mollie had been inclined to
+feel.
+
+When Rose had finished a simple statement of the facts of the case and
+had asked to hear from the other club members, no one answered.  Betty
+kept her eyes severely fastened upon Edith Norton's face.  Surely Edith
+must be aware of her knowledge of certain facts that were as much to
+her discredit as Polly's disobedience.  Of course nothing could induce
+her to make capital of this knowledge, since Betty Ashton's
+interpretation of Camp Fire loyalty was of a different kind from Edith
+Norton's, as the older girl was one day to find out.  Nevertheless
+there was nothing to prevent Betty from using her influence with the
+hope that Edith might be discouraged from making any suggestion that
+would start the tide of feeling rolling against the culprit.
+
+This Council Meeting might be a greater test of the entire Camp Fire
+organization than any one of the girls realized.  Possibly it had been
+a mistake to allow the fitness or unfitness of a fellow member to be
+openly discussed; especially when the girl was Polly O'Neill, for Polly
+was a powerful influence always and the club might easily split upon a
+criticism of her.  Whatever should happen, however, Betty Ashton
+intended using every effort to keep the Sunrise Hill Camp together,
+saving Polly also if she could.
+
+In spite of her friend's restraining glance, Edith apparently failed to
+regard her, for instead she glanced insinuatingly toward Eleanor Meade
+and Meg Everett.  Both these girls had expressed themselves as deeply
+shocked and grieved over Polly's behavior, though neither of them
+appeared to be ready to make any statement of their views on this
+occasion.  It was one thing to express an informal opinion of another
+girl's action, but quite another to make a formal accusation against
+her in the club where they had lived and worked and grown together in
+bonds almost closer than family ones.
+
+Next Edith studied Sylvia Wharton's expression.  Day and night had
+Sylvia nursed Polly with infinite patience, and yet she had made no
+effort to conceal her disapproval of her stepsister's conduct and
+Sylvia might always be relied upon for an honest and straightforward
+statement of her opinion.  Yet Sylvia's face at the present moment was
+as empty as though she had never had an idea in her life.
+
+Just why this continuing silence should make the original Sunrise Hill
+Camp Fire guardian smile, no one understood.  However, the Lady of the
+Hill knew very well why and was feeling strangely relieved.  For had
+she not permitted a dangerous test of the Camp Fire spirit to be tried
+and were the girls not responding just as she had hoped and believed
+they would?  Surely during these past two years they had been
+developing a real understanding of comradeship, the ability to stick
+together, to keep step.  And girls and women had for so many centuries
+been accused of the inability to do this.
+
+"I think that no one of us holds Esther Crippen in any way responsible
+for Polly O'Neill's action or for continuing to keep her family in
+ignorance of what she was doing," Edith finally began in a rather weak
+voice, seeing that no one else showed any sign of speaking.  "It is one
+of the things that I think she is most to be blamed for, since it is
+hardly fair to bring another club member into a difficulty on account
+of her feeling of personal loyalty."
+
+Betty frowned.  There was so much of truth in Edith's speech that it
+could hardly fail to carry a certain amount of conviction.
+
+But before any one could reply, Sylvia Wharton got up from the floor,
+where she had been sitting in Camp Fire fashion, and crossing the room,
+stood before the flames, facing the circle of girls with her hands
+clasped in front of her and her lips shut tight together.  Her usually
+sallow skin was a good deal flushed.
+
+"I am going to make a motion to this club," she announced, "but before
+I do I want to say something, and everybody knows how hard it is for me
+to talk.  I can do things sometimes, but I can't say them.  Just now
+Edith Norton used the word, 'loyalty.'  I am glad she did, because it
+is just what I want to speak of--because it seems to me that loyalty is
+the very foundation stone of all our Camp Fires.  Of course Polly has
+broken a part of our law.  She has failed to be trustworthy, but I am
+not going into that, since each one of you can have your own opinion of
+her behavior and would have it anyway no matter what I said.  But the
+whole point is, won't every single girl in the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire
+Club possibly break some of the rules some day?  As we are only human,
+I think we are pretty sure to.  So I move that we say nothing more
+about Polly.  Perhaps others of us have done things nearly as bad or
+will do them.  But more important and what I would so much like to
+persuade you to feel about as I feel is this:"--and Sylvia's plain face
+worked with the strength of an emotion which few people had ever seen
+her display before--"I want us to promise ourselves and one another
+that no matter what any fellow member of the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire
+Club ever does, or what mistake she may make, or even what sin she may
+commit, that no one of us will ever turn her back upon her or fail to
+do anything and everything in our power to help her and to make things
+happy and comfortable again.  I wish I could talk like Betty and Polly,
+but you do understand what I mean," Sylvia concluded with tears
+compounded of embarrassment and earnestness standing in her light blue
+eyes.
+
+"Hear, hear!" whispered Miss McMurtry a little uncertainly.
+
+Rose Dyer clapped her hands softly together.  The sound gave the
+necessary suggestion to the other girls, and poor Sylvia crept back to
+her place in the circle in a storm of applause.  It was the simplest
+method by which the girls could reveal their deeper emotions.  A few
+moments afterward Sylvia's proposal was put into the form of a regular
+motion and carried without a dissenting voice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A FIGURE IN THE NIGHT
+
+"Polly," a muffled voice murmured in so low a tone that the sound was
+scarcely audible.  Then a cold hand was slid beneath the bed clothes,
+clasping a warm, relaxed one and pressing it with sudden intensity.
+
+"Betty, did you call me?" Polly O'Neill inquired, turning over sleepily
+and trying to pierce the darkness so as to get a view of her companion.
+Now that she was coming to her senses, she could feel Betty's body
+straining close up against her own and her lips almost touching her ear.
+
+It was between two and three o'clock in the morning and the two friends
+had been sleeping together in Betty Ashton's old-fashioned four-post
+bed, hung with blue curtains that opened only for a space of several
+feet in the center of the two sides.  The room was dark and cold, for
+there was no light burning and the sky outside held the blackness that
+often precedes the dawn.  A window was open, letting in sudden gusts of
+freezing air.
+
+"You aren't ill, are you?" Polly was about to ask when the other girl's
+fingers closed over her mouth.
+
+"Don't speak and don't stir," Betty whispered, still in almost
+noiseless tones.  "Just listen for a moment.  Try and not be
+frightened, but do you think you can hear any one moving about in this
+room?"
+
+For the first instant Polly felt a decided inclination to laugh.  What
+an absurd suggestion Betty was making!  She must have been asleep and
+dreamed something that had frightened her.  It was rather to be
+expected, however, after the shock of her accident at the cabin.
+Therefore it would be best to gratify her fancy; and Polly set herself
+to listening dutifully.
+
+Then Polly herself started, only to feel once more the other girl's
+restraining clasp.  But the sound she had heard was only the banging of
+the blind against the window.  Nevertheless with the quick Irish
+sensitiveness to impressions, to subtle suggestions, she was beginning
+to have a terrifying consciousness of some other person in their
+bedroom than herself and Betty.  And yet she had so far heard nothing,
+seen nothing.
+
+"Look through the opening in the curtain toward the farthest end of the
+room--there by the big closet door," Betty whispered.  "Be perfectly
+still, for I am quite sure that the figure has passed entirely around
+the room twice as though it were groping for something.  I can't see, I
+can only hear it, and once I felt sure that a hand touched our bed."
+
+Shadowy, terrifyingly silent, an indistinct outline was discernible
+along the opposite wall and a hand moving slowly up and down it as if
+searching for something.  Could it be for the door of the closet only a
+few feet away?
+
+Both girls for the moment were too frightened or too surprised to stir
+or to call out.  The idea of jumping suddenly from the bed and running
+toward the intruder had occurred to Betty, who was the more widely
+awake, although she had confessed to herself that she was neither brave
+nor foolish enough to do it.  For the figure was too mysterious, too
+uncertain, and whether man or woman, boy or girl, she had no
+conception.  Why, it was only the fact of the hand which proved that it
+was even human!
+
+Then both girls lay rigid once more, with not a muscle moving, scarcely
+believing that they breathed.  For the form was again flitting down the
+length of the room, possibly toward their bed.  The next second and it
+had passed through Betty's evidently unlatched door and vanished
+noiselessly into the hall.
+
+Polly was sleeping on the outside of the bed, so it was she who first
+leaped upon the floor, turning on the electric light until the room was
+brilliantly illuminated.
+
+"You are not to stir until I can go along with you," Betty protested,
+following her immediately.  And then both girls lost a moment of time
+in putting on their dressing gowns, for the night was bitterly cold.
+
+"Shall we call somebody first?" Polly inquired, all at once in the
+lighted room feeling uncertain as to whether the experience through
+which they had lately passed had been a real one.  Nothing in their
+room was changed in the least since their going to bed.  There were
+Betty's clothes on one chair and her own upon another.  There was the
+book she had been reading left open upon the desk, and Betty's
+unfinished letter to Esther.  Had they both gone suddenly mad?
+
+But Betty had lighted a candle; so Polly followed until they were able
+to light the gas in the second story hall.
+
+There was no one about.  All the other bedroom doors were safely closed
+and the Professor was apparently snoring hoarsely.
+
+"Shall we call your mother or wake up anybody?" Polly questioned.  But
+Betty shook her head.  She looked pale, and her eyes were uncomfortably
+mystified.  Otherwise she appeared perfectly self-controlled.
+
+"No, let us not call anybody and not mention our alarm until morning.
+If our visitor was a burglar, he knows that we are aware of his
+presence and so won't try any more performances tonight.  And if it
+wasn't a burglar, but a ghost, why, there is no use frightening mother
+to death and we will only get laughed at by the others.  It seems queer
+to me for either a ghost or a burglar to come into a house so filled
+with people.  If you don't mind, Polly, let us just go on back to bed
+and leave the light burning for our consolation.  We had both better
+try to sleep."
+
+Sleep, however, after their few moments of terror and in the face of
+the enigma of their unexplained visitor, was impossible.  Also the
+light in the bedroom did not induce slumber, although both girls found
+it agreeable.  Their door leading out into the corridor was now
+securely latched, notwithstanding that Betty was not in the habit of
+locking it.
+
+"Betty," Polly asked after a few moments of silence, when the two
+friends were back again in bed with their arms clasped close about each
+other, "the closet there at the end of your room--is it one where
+either you or your mother keep your clothes?"
+
+"No," the other girl repeated thoughtfully.  "I had not thought of
+that.  But it only makes things queerer than ever.  For the closet is a
+particularly large one and has always been stored with rubbish.  It has
+an old trunk in it and some pictures and boxes.  I don't think there is
+anything of value, though I don't know exactly what is in the trunk, or
+the boxes either for that matter.  I have often meant to clear the
+place out, but I have never needed the space and mother pokes around in
+it sometimes.  It is ridiculous to suppose that a burglar would take an
+interest in old trash, when there are so many other valuable things
+about.  Besides, suppose there should happen to be a few treasures in
+one of the boxes or the trunk, nobody could know about it when I don't.
+Oh dear, I wish it were morning!"
+
+Betty sighed deeply, tumbling about restlessly in a fashion that made
+her a very undesirable bed companion.  And yet Polly, who was
+ordinarily nervous from the slightest movement, made no protest.  And
+she said nothing more for some time, although it was self-evident that
+she was not growing sleepy.  Her rather oddly shaped blue eyes had a
+far-away, almost uncanny light in them, that somehow added to Betty's
+discomfort.
+
+"Look here, Polly O'Neill," she protested, giving her arm an
+affectionate squeeze, "please don't be wishing a ghost upon us.  I know
+you have always believed in Irish fairies and elves and hobgoblins and
+the like, and used to fuss with poor Mollie and me outrageously because
+we couldn't or wouldn't see them.  But tonight--Oh, well, even Irish
+ghosts don't come strolling into one's bedroom.  They at least have the
+courtesy to stay in churchyards and in haunted ruins."
+
+"Yes, but isn't this the haunted room of this house, Betty?" Polly
+inquired in a faintly teasing voice, which yet held a note of serious
+questioning in it.
+
+And immediately Betty's face grew white and frightened, far more so
+than at any moment before during their adventure, so that the other
+girl was instantly regretful of her speech.
+
+"Polly O'Neill," two firm hands next took hold on Polly's thin
+shoulders, turning her deliberately over in bed so that she was forced
+to face her questioner, "ever since I can remember there has been some
+mystery or other connected with this old room.  Of course it is not
+haunted.  I suppose sensible people don't believe in ghosts, though I
+don't see why not believing makes them fail to exist.  But the room may
+have had a tragedy of some kind take place in it, something that both
+mother and Dick find it painful to mention or recall.  I told you that
+mother would not explain her feeling to me when I insisted upon
+knowing.  However, I don't think my family has the right to keep a
+secret from me.  I am nearly grown now and no longer the kind of girl I
+used to be.  So see here, Polly.  Look me directly in the eyes.
+Oftentimes outsiders hear things first.  Have you ever heard of a
+sorrow or accident, or even something worse, that may have occurred in
+this house or even in this room when I was too little a girl to
+understand or remember it?  You must tell me the truth."
+
+Polly shook her head, devoutly thankful at the moment for her own lack
+of information.  With Betty's beautiful, honest gray eyes searching her
+own, with her lips trembling and her cheeks flushed with the fervor of
+her desire, her friend would have found deceiving her extremely
+difficult.  Yet it was more agreeable to change the subject of their
+talk, even though it continued upon dangerous grounds.
+
+"No, Betty, I was not thinking of ghosts nor of the fact that you have
+always been absurdly curious about the mystery of this room.  I was
+thinking of something altogether different--of a thief, in fact--and I
+was wondering whether you would be angry or hurt or both if I mention
+something to you?" Polly returned.
+
+Betty kissed her friend's thin cheek, wishing at the same instant that
+it would grow more rounded, now that Polly was presumably well.  "You
+don't usually mind making me angry, dear," she smiled.  "And I don't
+see why if you have a possible theory of a burglar that I should be
+hurt.  Do you think the figure we saw was a man's or a woman's?"
+
+"I don't know," the other girl replied.  "What I have been wondering is
+just this: Has any one in this house ever come into this room with your
+mother when she was rummaging in that old closet, to help her move the
+furniture or lift things about?"
+
+For a moment Betty frowned and then her face flamed crimson.
+
+"You are not fair, Polly.  You never have approved of his living here
+or my being kind to him.  And you have said half a dozen times that
+there was no special point in my being particularly grateful to him,
+since any one of our friends would have done just what he did, had they
+been equally near me.  But then of course that does not alter the fact.
+Now just because _he_ has been in here to assist mother does not prove
+anything, does not even make it fair to be suspicious."
+
+Polly shrugged her shoulders.  "I knew you would be angry, so I am
+sorry I spoke.  But you see our first meeting in the woods with the
+young man when your safety box was almost stolen from you was a little
+unfortunate.  But I don't say that I suspect any one, either, and I
+have no intention of not being fair.  However, I do intend to keep on
+the lookout.  Now kiss me good morning, for I am going to turn out the
+light.  The gray dawn seems at last to be breaking and perhaps we may
+both get a little sleep before breakfast time."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+UNCERTAINTY
+
+In spite of their own entire conviction the story told the next day by
+Polly and Betty to the various members of the Ashton household was
+received with little credulity.  Even Mrs. Ashton was inclined to be
+skeptical after finding that nothing in the big house had been stolen
+or even disarranged.  There was no window that had been pried open and
+no door left unlocked.  Then why, even if the robber had entered the
+house by some mysterious process of his own, had he gone away again
+empty-handed?  There were many pieces of valuable silver in the lower
+part of the establishment, pictures, even single ornaments that could
+be sold for fair sums of money.  Therefore why climb to the second
+story and enter the girls' room first?
+
+Although Betty and Polly were too deeply offended by the suggestion to
+allow it to be freely discussed, Miss McMurtry's idea that they had had
+a kind of sympathetic nightmare, or at least a mutual hallucination,
+was the most commonly accepted theory.  It was an extremely annoying
+point of view to both the girls, of course, but as they had nothing to
+disprove it, they were obliged after several futile arguments to let
+the matter rest.  Naturally their Camp Fire friends were delightfully
+thrilled by the anecdote, but as it was always received either with
+open or carefully concealed disbelief, after a few days neither Polly
+nor Betty cared to speak of it except to each other.
+
+There was one person, however, who, whether or not he believed the
+truth of their story, at least accepted it with extreme seriousness.
+And it was to him that Polly O'Neill made a determined effort to be the
+first narrator of their experience.
+
+Anthony Graham was in the habit of getting up earlier than any one else
+in the Ashton house and had of course disappeared hours before either
+of the girls awakened the morning after their nearly sleepless night.
+However, he was accustomed to returning to his small room in the third
+story at about half-past five o'clock every afternoon, when his work
+for the day was over, in order to change his clothes for the evening.
+So at about this time Polly found it convenient to be in the hallway
+leading to his room and to be there alone.
+
+As he walked toward her unconscious of her presence, in spite of her
+prejudice against him she could not fail to see how much the young man
+had improved.  He was hardly recognizable as the boy with whom they had
+had the encounter in the woods a little more than a year before.  He
+was shabby enough and as lean as a young animal that has had too much
+exercise and too little food.  His face was serious, almost sad;
+nevertheless Polly had no intention of not pursuing her investigation.
+
+She had seated herself on a narrow window ledge and was presumably
+peering out at the trees in the garden.
+
+As he caught sight of her the young man started with a perfectly
+natural surprise.  For although Polly had been in the same house with
+him now for a number of weeks, they had not seen each other more than
+half a dozen times and had only talked together once when Betty had
+made a point of introducing them as though they had never met before.
+
+Perhaps some recollection of their original coming together was in
+Anthony's memory, for he blushed a kind of dull brick red, when Polly,
+turning deliberately from her window seat, said: "Mr. Graham, I wonder
+if you would mind giving me a minute of your time.  There is something
+I wish to tell you."
+
+"Certainly," he answered and then stood fingering his hat in the same
+awkward fashion that he had employed in his Thanksgiving visit to
+Betty, yet regarding the girl herself with a totally different
+sensation.
+
+For instinctively Anthony Graham recognized that Polly O'Neill was or
+might become his enemy.  Not that she would do him any wrong, but that
+if ever he was able to set out to accomplish the desire of his heart,
+the weight of her influence and feeling would be against him.  And he
+did not underestimate the compelling power of a nature like Polly's.
+She was wayward, high tempered, sometimes appearing unreliable and
+almost unloving.  Yet this last fact was never true of her.  It was
+only that her personality was of the kind that can want but one thing
+at a time with all the passion and force of which it is capable.  And
+pursuing this desire, she might seem to forget her other impulses.
+Polly, however, never did put aside her few really vital affections.
+She and Betty Ashton might quarrel, might continue to disagree as they
+had so often done in the past; yet Betty's welfare and happiness would
+always be of intense concern to her friend.  More because of the
+quality of her imagination than from any single witnessed fact, Polly
+had lately suspected that Anthony might learn to care more for her
+friend than would be comfortable for anybody concerned in the affair.
+And undoubtedly the young man had once been a thief if intention
+counted.  Therefore he might be a thief again, and in any case probably
+needed to be forewarned of a number of things.
+
+"There was a burglar in our room last night," Polly began, wasting no
+time in preliminaries, but keeping her blue eyes fixed so directly upon
+Anthony's that they were like blue flames.
+
+Even before he could reply the young man wondered how there could be
+people who thought this girl beautiful or even pretty.  It was true
+that at times her eyes were strangely magnetic, that her hair was
+always black with that peculiar almost dead luster, and her lips like
+two fine scarlet lines.  Yet she was always too thin, her chin too
+pointed and her cheekbones too high to touch any of his ideals of
+beauty.
+
+"I--I am sorry.  That is--what _do you mean_?" the young fellow
+stammered stupidly.  And all at once the scowl gathered upon his face
+that Betty Ashton had once misunderstood.  It was a black, ugly look,
+and in this case certainly was inspired by the impression that because
+of his former misdeed, Polly might now be suspecting him of another.
+
+And she left him no room for doubt.
+
+"Oh, I am not exactly accusing you," she remarked coolly, "for I
+presume that would hardly be fair.  But I am not going to pretend that
+I feel as much confidence in you as I do in the people against whom I
+know nothing.  I can't.  Perhaps I may some day when you have made
+good, but it is a little too soon to expect it of me, as I am not an
+idealist like some girls.  So last night, though we did not have any
+reason to suspect that the person who entered our room and then stole
+out again without our ever really seeing him or her had anything to do
+with you, I must confess I did think of you.  Because, though it is
+just as well not to talk about it, there is no question but that the
+intruder was already living in this house.  No one came in from the
+outside.  So you see it is like this: I don't begin to say that it was
+you, but I am going to be on the watch and it is just as fair to warn
+you openly as to suspect you in secret.  Then there is another thing.
+Personally I don't believe we had a ghostly visitant, as Betty is
+inclined to think because of the mystery of that particular room.  So
+suppose we take it for granted that you had nothing to do with our
+experience, then will you help Betty and me to find out who or what it
+was?  We do not want to create too much disturbance over it."
+
+Just how many varying emotions had passed through Anthony Graham's mind
+during Polly's amazing speech, it would be difficult to express.  He
+was bitterly angry of course, deeply wounded and resentful, and yet he
+could not but have a certain respect for the girl's outspokenness, for
+her kind of brutal courage.  Certainly he was given notice not to
+repeat his offense, if offense he had committed.  And as proof of his
+own innocence it might be as wise for him to discover the real offender.
+
+Anthony kept a hold on himself by a fine effort of self-control.  The
+truth was that he and Polly O'Neill were not altogether unlike in
+disposition, and he had a temper and a will to match with hers.
+Notwithstanding, he appreciated that this was not the occasion for
+revealing weakness.
+
+Therefore he merely bowed with such quiet courtesy that Polly was
+secretly astonished.
+
+"You are unfair in suspecting me of having violated Mrs. Ashton's
+confidence simply because I once tried to commit a theft.  Though of
+course I know that most people would feel just as you do.  Does
+Betty--does Miss Ashton----" he inquired.
+
+Polly frowned.  "No," she responded curtly.
+
+"Then will you tell her, please, that you have confided what has
+happened to me and that I will do my best to ferret out the mystery."
+
+And Anthony walked past and into his own room, closing the door
+noiselessly behind him.
+
+With a shrug of her thin shoulders Polly stood for another moment
+regarding the shut door.  "I am sorry to say it, but he has behaved a
+great deal better than I expected," she thought to herself with a smile
+at her own expense.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+AN UNSPOKEN POSSIBILITY
+
+The two friends were walking home from school together about ten days
+later.  They had both stayed until almost dusk engaged in different
+pursuits.
+
+Betty was doing some extra studying with Miss McMurtry, as she had
+missed so much time and science was always her weakest point; while
+Polly had been having an hour's quiet talk with her former elocution
+teacher, Miss Adams.  Probably she was the one person in Woodford,
+excepting Betty, who sympathized in the least with Polly in her
+escapade.  Or if she did not exactly sympathize with her, she was sorry
+for the retribution that she had brought upon herself.  For Mrs.
+Wharton had decreed that her daughter was not to leave Woodford again
+and was not even to be permitted to study anything in the village with
+the view of its being useful to her later in a stage career.  The
+subject was to be entirely tabooed until Polly reached twenty-one, when
+if she were of the same mind, she might choose her own future.  Of
+course to an impatient nature three years and a few months over seemed
+like an eternity, and except for Betty's sympathy and her frequent
+talks with Miss Adams and the latter's accounts of her great cousin,
+Margaret Adams, Polly believed existence would have been unendurable.
+
+She was in such a state of excitement now over something which Miss
+Adams had been recently telling her, that at first she hardly heard
+what Betty was trying to say.
+
+"I have her permission to tell you, Polly dear, because she wishes to
+have your advice, as you have more imagination about getting out of
+difficulties than the rest of us; but you have to promise first never
+to mention it to anybody, not to a single other member of the Camp Fire
+Club or to Rose or even Donna."
+
+Polly laughed, putting her arm lightly across Betty Ashton's shoulder.
+
+"What are you talking about, child?" she demanded.  "I don't
+particularly like that suggestion of my talent for getting out of
+scrapes; but if the scrape has anything to do with Betty Ashton, then
+all my talent is at her disposal, of course."
+
+"But it has nothing to do with me, at least not in the way you mean,"
+the other girl replied, too much in earnest to be amused even for the
+moment.  "It has to do with a girl whom you have never liked very much
+and she has never liked you.  But she has been my friend and I do care
+for her.  And moreover she is a member of our Sunrise Hill Camp Fire
+Club and we promised to live up to Sylvia's motion."
+
+"Edith Norton?" Polly queried.  "She must be in trouble if she is
+willing to confide in me."
+
+But Betty's expression suddenly silenced her.  Always Betty Ashton had
+been the most popular among her special group of Camp Fire girls.  At
+first chiefly for her beauty, her wealth, the prominent position of her
+family and for her own generosity and charm.  More recently, however,
+since the girl had met her own disasters so courageously, a new element
+had come into her influence and the affection she inspired.  It was a
+quality that Polly with all her cleverness would never create, one of
+steadfastness under fire.  Perhaps it was one of the last
+characteristics that one might have looked for in the early days of the
+Princess.  And yet it will always be found in truly aristocratic
+natures.  When life is flowing smoothly, when the days go by with no
+special demands made upon them, these persons may have many little
+weaknesses.  Yet when the special occasion arises theirs is the
+faithfulness and fortitude.  So while Betty had neither the sound
+judgment of Sylvia Wharton nor the brilliant fancy of Polly, it was to
+her that the other girls usually made their first appeal in any dilemma
+or distress.
+
+At this moment if they had not been together on the street Polly would
+have liked to embrace her.  The cold air had brought Betty's color
+back; she still wore the little lace cap under her old fur hat, but the
+edging made a lovely frame for her face, and her hair was already
+growing so that the curls showed underneath, like a baby's.
+
+"Yes, it is Edith," Betty answered seriously.  "And she is in a
+difficulty that you could never have imagined of one of our Camp Fire
+girls.  You know she has been going a good deal with that man whom none
+of us like until she thinks she is really in love with him.  And it
+seems that Edith believes that he does not care a great deal about her.
+So she, poor thing, has been trying her best to make him care.  She has
+bought herself a lot of clothes that she cannot afford, for you know
+she gets such a small salary at the shop where she works."
+
+"Is that all?" Polly demanded.  "It is awfully foolish of her, of
+course, to be so extravagant, but it isn't such a dreadful crime.  And
+as I suppose she has charged what she got, she can just save up and pay
+back her bills by degrees."
+
+Betty shook her head.  "Don't be a goose, dear.  Edith can't charge
+things in Woodford.  She hasn't any credit in the shops like your
+mother and mine have.  She is only a poor girl working for her own
+support, with her family not living here and with no position when they
+were.  No, you see she borrowed the money from the woman she was
+working for without telling her.  She meant to pay it back of course,
+only, only----"
+
+"You mean she stole it from her?" Polly exclaimed in a hushed tone.
+This was a good deal worse than anything which she had anticipated.
+She had always considered Edith Norton foolish and vain; but then
+surely the Camp Fire had helped her, had given her the ideals and the
+training that she had never learned at home.  Betty was crying so
+bitterly and so openly that Polly felt she must comfort her friend
+first before criticising or attempting to suggest a solution to the
+other girl's problem.
+
+"But, dear, if you wish Edith's trouble kept a secret, you must not
+weep over her, just as you get home," she protested.  "Don't you know
+that everybody in the house will be demanding to know what the matter
+is at once, and the Professor can hardly be kept from weeping with you?
+I can't think of anything to suggest to Edith except that she confess
+what she has done and ask Madame to let her return the money by working
+for it."
+
+"I told her that, but she did not believe that she would be forgiven,"
+Betty explained.  "Oh, if I only had just a little of the money I used
+to throw away!  I don't mind being poor so much myself, Polly; it is
+when I so want to do for other people."
+
+"You don't have to tell me that, Princess," her friend replied quietly.
+"But, dear, this time I am glad you have not the money.  Because you
+know it would not be right for you just to give Edith the money and
+have her give it back without any one's knowing.  At least, I don't
+quite think so.  And yet I am awfully sorry that Edith and I should
+both in our different ways have broken our Camp Fire law.  And I will
+do anything I can think of to help her.  Do you know, dear, how long
+she has been in this difficulty?
+
+"Oh, I think about two weeks," Betty answered.  "But she only confided
+in me yesterday.  It seems that she has tried several ways of getting
+the money and has attempted to borrow it.  She thought maybe I could
+lend it to her, and I may be able to later on, only I would have to
+tell mother some reason why I needed twenty-five dollars all of a
+sudden from our small supply."
+
+"No, you must not.  Maybe I may be able to help.  Or we may persuade
+Edith to confess.  I believe she will when she thinks more about our
+old Camp Fire teachings.  Anyhow, as we are at home now, let us wait
+and talk it all over again tonight after we get to bed.  It is then, of
+course, that I do my most brilliant thinking."
+
+So with this in mind, obliterating all other thoughts at their hour of
+retiring, for the first evening since their fright ten days before,
+neither Polly nor Betty remembered the locking of their outside door
+upon getting into bed.
+
+And this time it was Polly O'Neill who was aroused first a short while
+after midnight by the slow turning of their doorknob and then the sense
+of an almost noiseless figure entering their bedroom.
+
+Immediately she awoke Betty by suddenly calling her name aloud, and at
+the same instant sprang out of bed, again touching the electric button
+and flooding the room with revealing light.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE BEGINNING OF LIGHT
+
+"Why, why!" exclaimed Polly in surprise  and  consternation, standing
+perfectly still with her hand upraised toward the light, too puzzled to
+let it drop down at her side.
+
+But with a little, warning cry Betty had called to her and almost at
+the same moment was across the room, with her arms about a tall, slight
+figure.
+
+"Mother, mother," she whispered quietly, "wake up.  You have gotten up
+out of your bed and wandered into Polly's and my room.  And you have
+frightened us nearly to death!  Dear me, you have not walked in your
+sleep for years, have you?"
+
+At Betty's first words following the stream of light, Mrs. Ashton had
+opened her eyes with returning consciousness until now she appeared
+almost entirely wide awake.  And an expression both of fear and
+annoyance crossed her face.
+
+"You poor children, so I am your ghost and your burglar," she declared,
+"and I believed it was you who were having nightmares!  I am awfully
+sorry.  Betty knows I used to have this unfortunate habit of strolling
+about the house in my sleep long ago.  But I am quite sure that I have
+not done it for several years now.  The truth is I have not yet gotten
+over the nervous shock of Betty's being brought home to me and my not
+knowing how seriously she was injured for such a time; it seemed an
+eternity."
+
+Betty had thrown a shawl over her mother's shoulders, as she was clad
+only in her night-dress, and she and Polly slipped into their dressing
+gowns.
+
+"Wasn't it odd, though, mother, your coming in here both times?  I
+wonder if you had me on your mind and wanted to see how I was.  But you
+did not seem to.  You kept groping your way toward that old closet as
+though you wished to rummage about in it.  But do come and let me take
+you back to bed now, and I will stay with you so you will behave
+yourself and give Polly a chance to rest."
+
+For quite five minutes after the two had gone, Polly lay awake.  There
+were really so many things to consider, because, of course, when one
+has too active an imagination it is apt to lead one into trouble.
+First, she must apologize to Anthony Graham for her totally unfounded
+suspicion of him.  And then, thank Heaven, she had not breathed the
+suggestion aloud!  Yet just for a moment she had wondered if Edith
+Norton could have--but it was not true and of course never could have
+been.
+
+Then a third idea.  What could be hidden away in that old closet of so
+great value or interest that Mrs. Ashton turned toward it in her
+sleeping hours, when her subconscious mind must be directing her
+footsteps?   No wonder that Betty was puzzled and annoyed over the
+secrets of the old room.  Naturally as a visitor in the Ashton home it
+would be exceedingly bad manners, if nothing worse, for her to try to
+find out anything that her hostess wished to keep concealed.  Yet just
+as Polly lost her train of thought she remembered wishing that Betty
+might make the discovery for herself, since most certainly then she
+would confide in her.
+
+The next day being Friday, Polly went to her own home to spend the
+week-end.  And quite by accident she and Mollie came in together for a
+few moments on Sunday afternoon and went directly to Betty's room
+without letting her know of their approach.
+
+As they knocked and had no answer, Polly, feeling entirely at home,
+pushed the door open.
+
+"Betty, child, don't you want to see us?" she demanded.  "I know I
+promised to give you a rest until Monday, but Mollie and I could not
+bear to spend a whole Sunday afternoon without you."
+
+And at this, Betty Ashton appeared from the darkness of the big closet
+at the farthest end of her bedroom.  She wore a lavender cashmere frock
+with a broad velvet belt and a lace cap with lavender ribbons.  But the
+cap was much awry, so that her hair was tumbled carelessly over her
+forehead, even showing the slight scar underneath, which usually she
+was so careful to hide, and her cheeks were a good deal flushed.  There
+was no doubt that she was greatly interested or excited over something.
+
+"Mollie and Polly, I am glad," she avowed.  "I was just needing some
+one to talk to and to ask questions of most dreadfully.  Mother has
+gone out driving this afternoon, and as I was alone it occurred to me
+it might be fun to rummage about in this old closet and see whether it
+really concealed any treasures.  After our belief that a burglar was
+trying to enter it, I thought it might be just as well for me to find
+out what it contained."
+
+"Does your mother know?" Polly inquired, and could hardly have
+explained to herself just why she asked the question.
+
+"No.  I did not think of investigating it before she left.  But of
+course she won't care.  Why should she?  The boxes have nothing in them
+but old books and rubbish.  But this trunk--I can't quite understand
+about some of the things I have found in it.  Maybe you can help me
+guess."
+
+And before either of the other girls knew what she intended doing,
+Betty was dragging the shaky trunk out of the closet into the greater
+brightness of the room, Mollie rushing to her assistance as soon as
+possible.  Yet for some reason unknown to herself, Polly hesitated.
+She did not even move forward when Betty and Mollie dropped down on
+their knees before it, although she did observe that the trunk was
+locked, but that the hinges at the back had rusted and fallen off, so
+that Betty had gotten into it in that way.
+
+Evidently the things at the top had already been taken out inside the
+closet, for Betty was now reaching down toward the bottom and bringing
+out what looked like a trousseau of baby clothes--her own or Dick's,
+they could not yet tell which.
+
+The little dresses were yellow and fragile with age; the long blue coat
+had faded; most of the little shoes and flannels had been worn.
+
+"I wish you would not look through those things until your mother gets
+back, Betty," Polly said rather irritably.
+
+But both her sister and friend glanced up at her in surprise.
+
+"What is the possible harm?  Mother couldn't mind.  There is certainly
+no reason why I should not look at my own clothes or at Dick's.  It's
+queer I never happen to have seen them before."
+
+"Did your mother never have any other children, Betty?" Mollie
+inquired, and the other girl shook her head.
+
+Polly had come over now and was standing near them by the edge of the
+trunk and looking down inside it.
+
+Of course what Betty was doing must seem to her perfectly right or else
+she would never have thought of doing it; yet Polly could not help
+feeling a certain distaste for the whole proceeding.  Old possessions
+were always kind of uncanny and uncomfortable to her temperament; they
+held too poignant a suggestion of death, of the passing of time and of
+almost forgotten memories.
+
+Betty and Mollie had a differently romantic point of view.  And to both
+of them, being essentially feminine, the delicate, exquisite baby
+apparel made a strongly sentimental appeal.
+
+Suddenly, with a little cry of surprise and amusement, Betty picked up
+a small frock which must have been made for a child of about a year
+old, that was curiously different from the others.  While they had been
+of sheer lawns and expensive laces, this was a perfectly
+straight-up-and-down garment of coarse check gingham of the cheapest
+kind and attached to it were a pair of rough little shoes.
+
+"I wonder how in the world these ever got in here or why mother has
+preserved them so carefully.  She has a perfect horror of cheap
+things," Betty began in a half-puzzled and half-humorous fashion,
+holding the poor little baby dress up to the light and giving it a
+shake.
+
+Stooping, Mollie picked up something that must have fallen from one of
+the shoes.  It was an old tintype picture of a comparatively young man
+with a baby in his arms and a little girl pressing close up against his
+knee.
+
+Mollie was looking at it with a slightly bewildered expression when
+Polly came up and glanced over her shoulder.  And instantly Polly's
+face grew white; however, it was a trick of hers when anything
+surprised or annoyed her.  And at the moment she had a strong impulse
+to take the picture from Mollie's hands and tear it into a hundred
+pieces before Betty Ashton should have a chance to see it.
+
+Notwithstanding, Betty had already joined them and was apparently as
+much perplexed as Mollie.  She took the photograph nearer to the window.
+
+"I declare this looks like Esther when she was a little girl and
+Professor Crippen.  I believe he did tell me there was another child
+that somebody had adopted and who did not know he was her father.  I
+suppose Esther must have asked mother to take care of these things for
+her.  It is queer that she never thought of speaking of them to me.  I
+must write her I have seen them, for I should not wish her to feel I
+had been prying," Betty finished, going back to the trunk and putting
+the little things carefully away.
+
+The weight that had gathered pressingly in the neighborhood of Polly's
+heart in the past thirty seconds now lifted.
+
+"Yes, and do close up that tiresome trunk at once Betty Ashton, or I am
+going home," Polly scolded.  "It bores me dreadfully to have you and
+Mollie poking in there when we might be talking."
+
+But Betty paid no heed to her, for she had found another photograph of
+a different character.  It was a picture of another baby, a beautiful
+miniature so delicately tinted that the colors were almost like life.
+And the child's face was very like Mrs. Ashton's, the same flaxen hair
+and light blue eyes.  And it bore no possible resemblance either to
+Richard Ashton or to Betty.  However, there was no reason to consider
+its being either one of them, for it was plainly marked on the back,
+"Phyllis Ashton," and then had the date of the birth.
+
+Betty offered no comment and expressed no wonder, although she let both
+her friends look at the picture, still holding it in her own hands.
+
+"But I thought you said your mother had only two children, you and
+Dick," Mollie declared, and Polly would have liked to shake her.
+
+"Yes, I did think so until now," the third girl replied.  And placing
+her picture back in the trunk, she closed the lid, still leaving the
+trunk in the center of the room, in spite of the fact that both her
+friends insisted on helping her with it into the closet.
+
+Then Betty began making tea on her alcohol lamp and talking of other
+things; only Polly could see that her mind was not in the least upon
+what she was saying, but that she was thinking of something else every
+possible second.
+
+Whether to go or to stay with her friend was Polly's present
+indecision.  However, she and Molly remained until Mrs. Ashton had
+returned from her drive and Betty went into her mother's room to assist
+in taking off her wraps.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+BETTY FINDS OUT
+
+It was Monday afternoon and the March weather held an alluring
+suggestion of spring.
+
+Running along the street with her red coat scarcely fastened and her
+hat at a totally wrong angle upon her head, Polly O'Neill showed no
+concern for exterior conditions.
+
+Finding the Ashton front door unlocked she entered without stopping to
+ring the bell, and made straight, not for Betty's, but for Mrs.
+Ashton's bedroom.  She found her lying upon the bed, though at her
+visitor's entrance she sat up, appearing quite ill.
+
+"O Mrs. Ashton, why didn't Betty come to school today?  Where is she?
+Has anything happened?  I was dreadfully worried when I found she was
+not at any of her classes, and then when I asked Miss McMurtry whether
+anything was the matter, she was so queer and mysterious.  And when I
+said I was going to leave school and come here at once, she said that I
+had better not, that Betty had specially asked to be alone and that
+even you had not seen her this morning.  Donna behaved just as though
+she knew something about my beloved Betty that I don't.  And it is not
+fair.  I am sure Betty would wish me to know.  Where is she?"
+
+"Sit down, Polly," Mrs. Ashton returned, getting up from the bed and
+taking a seat opposite.  "I don't know where Betty is just now and I am
+very uneasy and very unhappy about her.  The poor child has had so many
+things happen in the past year, after being spoiled in every possible
+way up till then.  She was in her own room most of the morning, but
+about two hours ago sent word to me that she was going out and that I
+was not to be alarmed if she did not return for some little time.  I
+might as well tell you our secret, dear.  I suppose there is no way now
+to keep people from knowing it eventually and perhaps we have been
+unkind and unwise in concealing it from Betty so long.  I wonder if you
+have ever dreamed that Betty is Esther Crippen's sister?"
+
+Polly gasped.  No, she had not dreamed it.  If the suspicion had ever
+entered her mind, she had put it from her as a self-evident absurdity.
+Her beautiful, exquisite Princess and Esther and Herr Crippen!  It was
+an impossible association of ideas and of people.
+
+"But it can't be true, Mrs. Ashton," she argued almost angrily, feeling
+that the room was whirling about and that she was almost ill from the
+surprise and shock.  And if this was her sensation, what could Betty's
+have been!  "Think how lovely Betty is and how utterly unlike either of
+them.  Besides, why have we never known and how did you happen to do
+it?"  Polly dropped her face in her two hands.  She so very seldom
+cried that the effort always hurt her.
+
+"It is a tragic story, dear, and one we have never liked to talk about
+for all our sakes," Mrs. Ashton replied, showing more self-control than
+Polly had ever seen her display before.
+
+"Very many years ago I had a baby named Phyllis.  Betty tells me that
+you too saw her picture in the old trunk.  Well, Dick was a little boy
+of about seven, and by some dreadful accident found a loaded pistol in
+his father's desk and came running into the big back room with it,
+which in those days was the baby's nursery.  You can imagine what
+happened without my telling you.  Dick was a child, and yet the horror
+of it has altered his entire nature and life.  He has always been
+serious and over-conscientious, always anxious to devote his life to
+the service of other people as a reparation for a tragedy which was
+never in the least his fault.  It was therefore as much for Dick's sake
+as for mine that Mr. Ashton persuaded us to adopt a baby in Phyllis'
+place.  So we drove out to the asylum together one day, with our minds
+not made up and there--there we found our adored Betty.  Herr Crippen
+had just left his two children to be cared for, and Betty was only a
+baby.  But she was the most exquisite little thing you can imagine, the
+same lovely auburn hair and big serious gray eyes.  Dick adored her
+from the moment that she put her arms about his neck and would not let
+go when the time came for us to return home.  We have always loved her
+since, Polly, as well as if she had been our own baby--better I almost
+think.  You know what she is, so there is little use for me to say
+it--'Our Princess', dear.  I have always loved your name and the other
+girls' for her."
+
+"But Herr Crippen and Esther--they are so plain, and except for their
+gifts, why, compared to Betty they seem so--so ordinary," Polly
+protested.
+
+"But you must remember that there was a mother, too, and that Herr
+Crippen has said she was an American and very lovely.  I believe her
+family would have nothing more to do with her because she married a
+German musician.  And then, you see, child, Betty has had many
+advantages that Esther has not had.  It was because Dick and I began
+slowly to realize that perhaps we had been cruel to Esther in depriving
+her of her little sister that we finally asked her to come here and
+live as a kind of companion to Betty.  It was a long-delayed kindness
+and yet Esther has very nobly repaid us; for it seems that when Herr
+Crippen returned and claimed Esther as his daughter, Esther learned
+then of Betty's relation to them and it was she who insisted that her
+father make no sign, realizing how entirely Betty's devotion was given
+to Dick and Mr. Ashton and to me, even to this old home, which has been
+her pride for so long."
+
+"Poor, poor little Princess!  It will almost break her heart," Polly
+murmured.
+
+But although Mrs. Ashton wiped a few tears from her eyes, she shook her
+head.
+
+"Some day you will find out that hearts are harder to break than you
+now believe.  I would almost have given my life to have spared Betty
+this knowledge, and yet some day she must realize that we love her as
+we have always done and that love is the only thing that greatly
+counts, after all.  There is no reason why Betty should feel any shame
+in her relation to Herr Crippen; he has been unfortunate, but there is
+nothing else against him.  And Esther is a remarkable girl."
+
+"Yes, I know.  But what made Betty suspect?  How did she find all this
+out?" Polly queried.
+
+"Betty told me of her discoveries in the old trunk and asked me a
+number of questions.  I was confused; I am not in the least sure how I
+answered them.  Anyhow, she became suspicious and went to Herr Crippen
+and then to Miss McMurtry, who, it seems, was in Esther's and her
+father's confidence.  They gave the child no satisfaction, but only
+made her the more uneasy and distressed, until finally Betty remembered
+the sealed envelope which Mr. Ashton had always made her keep in her
+box of valuable papers.  Possibly she has told you that the envelope
+was only to be opened when she should come to some crisis in her life
+and need advice or information.  Betty opened the envelope and it
+contained the papers proving her legal adoption by us and her right in
+the equal division of whatever property either Mr. Ashton or I might
+have.  Now, Polly, that is all," Mrs. Ashton concluded.  "But I feel
+that if Betty does not soon come to me and put her arms about me and
+call me 'mother' as she always has, that I shan't be able to bear
+things either.  Won't you find her and bring her here to me?"
+
+And Polly, glad to be away to battle with her own emotions, kissed her
+older friend and vanished.  But Betty was not in her room, and as there
+seemed to be no clue to work upon, it was difficult to decide just
+where she should begin the search.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+SUNRISE CABIN
+
+Betty was not with any one of their acquaintances, for Polly telephoned
+everybody they knew before leaving the Ashton house.
+
+Then a possibility suddenly dawning upon her, she hurried forth,
+feeling that anything was better than remaining longer indoors.
+
+All of the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire girls were in the habit of taking
+frequent walks to their forsaken log cabin.  And as Betty wished to be
+alone and especially needed the strength and consolation that its happy
+memories could give her, probably she had gone out there.  Under most
+circumstances Polly would have respected her friend's desire for
+solitude, but Betty must already have been at the cabin for some time
+by herself and the dusk would soon come down upon her and she would be
+hurt and lonely, with all her familiar world fallen about her feet.
+
+No one else must learn of her pilgrimage, since Betty might forgive her
+presence and yet could not rally to meet the astonishment and sympathy
+of any other of her friends.  So Polly told several impatient fibs to
+the persons who insisted upon learning where she intended going, before
+she was able to get outside of Woodford and into the blessed solitude
+of the country lanes.
+
+The air was colder by this time and light flurries of snow kept
+blinding her eyes as she hurried along.  However, she had not so
+forgotten her training in woodcraft as not to recognize signs of
+Betty's having preceded her along almost the same route; for here and
+there, where the earth had thawed in the midday warmth, there were
+impressions of the Princess' shoes.  And she even picked up a small
+crushed handkerchief which had been dropped by the way.
+
+Therefore in spite of her depression over Mrs. Ashton's information,
+Polly was beginning to get a kind of hold upon herself.  For it was her
+place, if she possibly could manage it, to persuade Betty that, after
+all, life was not so utterly changed by yesterday's discovery.  If Mrs.
+Ashton and Dick were not her own mother and brother, they themselves
+knew no difference.  And there would be no change in her friends'
+affections.  Then, she had gained Esther as a sister, Esther who was so
+big in her nature, so unselfish and fine.  No wonder she had always
+seemed to care for Betty with a devotion no one of them could explain.
+And how hard it must have been loving her as she did to have made no
+claim upon her.
+
+"Hello, Miss Polly," an unexpected voice cried out, and to Polly's
+utter vexation she beheld Billy Webster coming toward her from the path
+that led through his father's woods.
+
+She bowed coldly, hoping that her coldness might be her salvation,
+since she did not wish to waste time in conversation with him, nor to
+explain why she was in such a hurry to go on with her walk.  But Billy
+was apparently not influenced by Polly's present attitude, being too
+accustomed to her moods.
+
+"May I walk along with you?" he inquired politely enough.  "I was just
+out for exercise, with no special place in mind where I wished to go,
+and I should ever so much rather have you as a companion."
+
+It was on the tip of Polly's tongue to exclaim, "But I would so much
+rather not have you!"  However, she suddenly recalled having promised
+Mollie to be as polite to Billy as she could and not to bear malice any
+longer.  So she merely shook her head.  "I am sorry, but I am in a
+great hurry," she explained.  "For you see I came out with a very
+special place in mind to which I wish to go immediately."
+
+Billy laughed, rather a big, splendid, open-hearted laugh.  Polly was
+amusing, in no matter what temper she might happen to be.
+
+"But I won't interfere with your destination and I certainly can manage
+to walk as fast as you can," he announced calmly, keeping close to the
+girl's side, although her rapid walking had developed almost into a
+run, and she was nearly out of breath.
+
+[Illustration: "I won't interfere with your destination"]
+
+Well, if she could not outwalk him and could not manage to get rid of
+him in any other way, Polly decided that she would at least keep
+perfectly silent until he had the sense to go away of his own accord.
+It was still some distance before she could reach the cabin.
+
+However, as Billy was doing a great deal of talking, he appeared not to
+be aware of her unusual silence.
+
+"Look here, Miss Polly, I have been thinking of something for a long
+time--several months, in fact," he declared.  "And I have about come to
+the conclusion that maybe I was pretty domineering in the way in which
+I behaved to you in New York.  Of course I still consider that acting
+business a dreadful thing for you to have done which might have brought
+consequences that you could not imagine.  But I ought to have tried to
+persuade you to stop or to write your mother, and not to have bullied
+you.  I want you to believe, though, that it was because I like you so
+much that I went all to pieces over the idea of anything happening to
+you--your getting ill or somebody being rude to you.  Great Scott! but
+I am glad that you have given up that foolish idea of going upon the
+stage and have settled down quietly in Woodford!"
+
+Polly turned a pair of astonished blue eyes upon her companion, who
+happened at the moment to be gazing up toward the sky where the snow
+clouds were growing heavier.
+
+"You are very kind to be interested in my welfare, I am sure," she
+replied, trying her best not to let sarcastic tones creep into her
+voice.  "And of course I realized that your friendship for Mollie and
+mother made you feel that you had the right to express your opinion
+very frankly to me.  But you are mistaken if you believe that I have
+given up my foolish notion of going upon the stage.  Of course I
+appreciate now that I was wrong in betraying mother's trust and in
+trying that experiment in acting without her consent.  So I have
+accepted my punishment and made my bargain.  But just the same, when I
+am twenty-one, I mean to try again with all my strength and power and
+to keep on trying until I ultimately succeed."
+
+Billy Webster closed his lips with a look of peculiar obstinacy.
+
+"Three years is a long time," he answered, "and you might as well know
+that though I am fond of Mollie and always will be, it is you I really
+care about.  Oh yes, I realize that there are hours when I almost hate
+you, but that is because you dislike me and because I can't get you to
+do what I wish.  Still, you might as well understand that I intend
+doing everything in my power for the next three years to make you stay
+in Woodford when the time is up and to make you stay because you love
+me."
+
+And then before Polly was able to get her breath or to stamp her foot
+or in any possible way to relieve her feelings, the young man had
+marched away through an opening at one side of the path, without even
+stopping once to glance back at her.
+
+It was out of the question then for Polly to decide whether she was the
+more angry, astonished or amused.  Of course it was absurd for Billy
+Webster to conceive of having any emotion for her except one of
+disapproval.  He was simply so obstinate and so sure of himself that he
+wanted to make her like him, because he knew that she almost hated him.
+And if it had not been for Mollie, she would have suffered no "almost"
+in her dislike.
+
+Really the confusion and protest that the young man's words had
+awakened in her mind, coming on top of the disclosure about Betty, made
+Polly feel as if she had suddenly taken leave of her senses.  And as it
+is a rather good scheme when one is unable to think clearly, to give up
+thinking at all for the time being, the girl started running in the
+direction of the cabin, so fast that she had opportunity for no other
+impulse or impression except forcing herself to keep up the desired
+speed.
+
+By a camp fire, which Betty had built for herself, Polly discovered her
+friend sitting on a stool with her elbow in her lap and her head
+resting on her hand.  She did not seem astonished or annoyed by her
+friend's entrance.  When Polly came forward and kissed her she merely
+said, "I am glad you know, Polly.  I hope you did not have a very cold
+walk.  It was not snowing when I came out."  Then she began piling more
+logs on her fire.
+
+Later the two girls had an intimate talk.
+
+"It is odd, Polly, but I don't feel as wretched as I should have
+expected I would," Betty explained, speaking as much to herself as to
+her companion.  "I think perhaps it is intended for me to have my
+illusions shattered earlier in life than other people have them--I
+think possibly because I have been vainer and more foolish.  At first I
+presume I used to have a kind of unconscious satisfaction in our having
+more money than other people and in being able to do almost anything
+for my friends that I wished.  Then when the money went away I thought,
+well, perhaps money does not make so much difference if one has an old
+family and a name of which one may be proud.  But in these last few
+hours, sitting here by myself I have begun to appreciate more fully
+what our Camp Fire organization is trying so hard to teach us.  It is
+that all we girls are alike in the essential things, only that some of
+us have been given better opportunities and more friends.  There is
+only one thing that really counts, I suppose, and that is not so much
+what other people do for us, as what we are able to do for ourselves,
+what kind of women we are able to grow into.  So you see that though I
+believe I was struggling to save the old Ashton house because all my
+distinguished ancestors had been living there for generation after
+generation and I wanted to have babies of my own to inherit it some
+day, now I am even happier because perhaps I have saved it for Dick and
+mother by my plan and maybe it will repay them a little for all they
+have done for me."
+
+"I don't think the debt is on your side, dear," Polly returned loyally.
+
+But already Betty had risen from her stool and was looking around for
+her cloak and cap.
+
+"Let us hurry home now; we shall have a glorious walk!" she exclaimed.
+"I have been away from mother long enough and I do want to write to
+Esther.  She has got to come to see me for a few days, or else I am
+going to her.  Don't worry; I shall not forget the seven points of our
+Camp Fire star."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+FAREWELLS
+
+One morning in May two months later two girls were in the
+much-discussed back bedroom overlooking the Ashton garden.  It was very
+much the same kind of cheerless day outdoors that it had been when they
+had first met each other after a lapse of many years.  And then of
+course neither one knew of the closeness of the tie between them.
+However, at the present moment they were busily engaged in packing two
+steamer trunks that were standing open before them.
+
+"I never shall get all this stuff in if you don't come and help me,
+Esther," Betty protested in the spoiled fashion of an earlier time.
+And since Esther never would cease to believe that the whole world
+should be grateful to Betty for the honor of her presence in it, it is
+doubtful whether her methods of spoiling "The Princess" ever would be
+entirely given up.
+
+"Sit down, dear, or else run and see Polly and Mollie and Mrs. Wharton
+for a few moments.  You are tired and I can finish putting the things
+in for you without any trouble.  Poor Polly is kind of pathetic these
+days, I think; she is so desperate over our going away and leaving her
+behind, and then, though she tries her best not to show it, she is
+jealous of our being so much together.  I am sorry for her, because it
+is pretty much the same way that I used to feel toward her.  And of
+course I have tried to show her that no one can take her place with
+you; but she is so low-spirited and so unlike herself that there is no
+convincing her of anything agreeable."
+
+Betty had sunk into a low chair and was rocking thoughtfully back and
+forward knitting her brows.
+
+"Mother and I both consider that Mrs. Wharton is making a mistake in
+not allowing Polly to leave Woodford for three years; for she will
+probably grow so tired of it by that time that she will never want to
+come home again--that is, if she goes on the stage.  When it was
+decided that we were to go abroad mother suggested to Mrs. Wharton that
+she let Polly come over and join us later.  She thought it would be
+very much more apt to distract her attention than if she stayed on here
+with nothing else to dream about."
+
+"And what did Mrs. Wharton answer?" Esther queried, turning from her
+own trunk and beginning to straighten out the confusion in her sister's.
+
+"Oh, she wouldn't hear of it," Betty returned.  "So sometimes I feel
+pretty selfish at being so happy over our sailing.  But just think, we
+are going straight to Germany and dear old Dick!  It seems a hundred
+years since he went away.  How strangely things have turned out!  Here
+are Miss McMurtry and my new father getting married, when I have been
+predicting that they would, with no one believing me, ever since that
+evening at the cabin.  So they will be able to look after the house and
+let the people stay on in it just as if mother and I were here, and
+send us a check for the rent each month so that we will have enough to
+live upon.  But better than anything, Esther dear, is the wonderful
+chance you will have for your music.  You are going to study under one
+of the greatest teachers in the world and not because of what your own
+family believe about your talent, but because of what your teacher in
+New York wrote the Professor."  It was not often that Betty was able to
+speak of Herr Crippen as father; Mr. Ashton had been her father too
+long, and she had cared for him too much to be willing to give the
+title to any one else.  So "the Professor" and "Donna" were the names
+she ordinarily bestowed upon her new parents.
+
+"You must not expect too much of my singing, Betty," Esther replied in
+her same shy, nervous fashion.  "And, for goodness sake! don't write
+your brother Dick that my voice has improved, or he will be
+disappointed."
+
+Betty laughed teasingly.  "Oh, I have told him already that you were
+greater than Melba and Farrar rolled into one.  But never mind, Esther,
+he will soon find out the real truth for himself.  Isn't it too
+splendid how happy mother is over our plans!  She has not been so like
+herself since father's death.  And somehow instead of acting as if she
+had given me up to the Professor as a daughter, she behaves far more as
+if he had just presented her with you as well.  I believe she feels it
+helps to make up to you, Esther, for the years of loneliness--her being
+able now to chaperon you, when you so much need to have your big
+chance."
+
+Esther was kneeling on the floor; but she turned her light blue eyes
+appealingly upon her sister and her lips quivered, revealing her one
+beautiful feature in the mobility of the lines of her mouth and in the
+whiteness of her teeth.
+
+"You must not expect too much of me, little sister, will you?" she
+pleaded.  "You know I have only consented to father's making this big
+sacrifice for me so that we may all be abroad together, and you and
+Mrs. Ashton have the rest and change you so much need.  And then, of
+course, I may be able to learn to sing well enough some day to earn the
+money to buy you a Paris frock and hat," she ended with an attempt at
+lightness.
+
+However, Betty was not deceived, and getting up from her rocking chair,
+she deliberately pushed Esther aside.
+
+"For goodness sake! let me finish packing my own trunk, Esther
+Crippen," she commanded.  "Here I have been carefully trying to
+cultivate an angelic character ever since I became a Camp Fire girl,
+and in a few weeks of your spoiling you do away with the labor of
+years."
+
+Betty therefore was not looking up when some one tiptoed quietly into
+the room, and, before she became conscious of her presence, dropped a
+bunch of May blossoms under her eyes.
+
+"There are two automobiles waiting before your door at the present
+moment, children," Polly announced.  "And John Everett suggested that I
+tell you to get into your coats and hats at once.  He came home for the
+day; I've an idea he may have desired to say farewell to 'My Lady
+Betty,' but I was given no such information.  What I was told to say
+was that he and Meg were giving an automobile ride in your honor and
+that we were to end up by having our lunch at the cabin.  They have
+asked all the Camp Fire Club and some of John's friends, Billy
+Webster," and Polly's face expressed her chagrin.  "John has even
+invited Anthony Graham, and the poor fellow has fixed himself up until
+he is positively shining with cleanliness, though I am afraid he will
+be cold in that shabby overcoat of his."
+
+While Polly was chattering, she was assisting Betty to slip into her
+new violet dress which had been made for the steamer crossing and
+happily was lying ready and spread out upon the bed.  And the next
+instant she had pinned Esther's new blue _crêpe de chine_ blouse down
+in the back, hurried them both into their heavy coats and hats, and was
+ushering them out to their friends, who were impatiently awaiting their
+coming.
+
+No one of the little party forgot their May day together in the woods
+and at the Sunrise Hill cabin for a long time to come.  And among the
+many kind things that were said to her in farewell, it was curious that
+the speech made by Anthony Graham should make the deepest impression
+upon Betty Ashton's mind.
+
+He had asked her come away from her other friends for a few moments,
+and they had walked to the edge of the group of pines not far from the
+foot of Sunrise Hill.  It was almost sunset, for no one had thought of
+going home after the late luncheon was over.
+
+Betty glanced about her rather wistfully.  This particular bit of
+country was dearer to her than any place in the world except her old
+home and yet she was leaving it for an unknown land, to be away she
+could not tell how long.
+
+"Miss Ashton," Anthony began, "there will probably be a good many
+changes in people and things before you come home again.  And I am
+hoping with all my strength that of the greatest changes will have
+taken place in me.  I mean that by that time you need not be ashamed of
+having befriended me.  It is pretty hard sometimes to climb a hill
+along with other people when you have started so much nearer the bottom
+than they have.  But I feel now that I have made at least a fair start.
+Judge Maynard told me yesterday that he believed I meant business and
+that he would teach me all the law he knew and that he would see that I
+wasn't far behind the fellows at the law schools when the time came for
+my examinations."
+
+Betty's face glowed with interest and enthusiasm and she gave her two
+hands to the young man with the same friendliness which she had used in
+his first call upon her.
+
+"I am so glad, so glad!" she answered.  "But please don't speak of my
+feeling ashamed of you ever again.  I know I was rather horrid to you
+once and that afterwards you saved my life, or what perhaps means more
+than one's life.  Suppose we promise to repay our debts to each other
+in some entirely new way when we meet after my return."  Betty made her
+idle speech with no special meaning attached to it.  And although
+Anthony agreed in much the same manner, it was possibly fortunate that
+Betty did not observe his expression as he turned away and walked a few
+paces ahead of her, gazing up toward the summit of Sunrise Hill.  The
+golden disk of the sun was at this instant resting upon it like the
+crown of the world.  And to Anthony it seemed none too beautiful or too
+magnificent a gift to have laid at the feet of a gray-eyed Princess.
+
+Voices were heard calling to them from the cabin, and a short while
+after good-nights were said and Sunrise Cabin was once more left to
+solitude and memories.
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+The next volume of the Camp Fire Girls' Series will be known as "The
+Camp Fire Girls Across the Seas."  Several years will have intervened
+between it and the previous book and the girls will be introduced under
+very different influences and circumstances.  Just how many of them
+will have crossed the seas and for what purposes, and how the old Camp
+Fire influence will still follow them, it is the plan of this story to
+reveal.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE OUTSIDE
+WORLD***
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+<h1 align="center">The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World, by
+Margaret Vandercook</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World</p>
+<p>Author: Margaret Vandercook</p>
+<p>Release Date: October 10, 2007  [eBook #22938]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD***</p>
+<br><br><center><h3>E-text prepared by Al Haines</h3></center><br><br>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" noshade>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<A NAME="img-cover"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-cover.jpg" ALT="Cover artwork" BORDER="2" WIDTH="465" HEIGHT="439">
+<H3 CLASS="h3center" STYLE="width: 465px">
+Cover artwork
+</H3>
+</CENTER>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="img-front"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="&quot;Esther Crippen, that is the loveliest song in the world!&quot;" BORDER="2" WIDTH="361" HEIGHT="608">
+<H3 CLASS="h3center" STYLE="width: 361px">
+&quot;Esther Crippen, that is the loveliest song<BR>in the world!&quot;
+</H3>
+</CENTER>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H1 ALIGN="center">
+THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS
+<BR>
+IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD
+</H1>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+BY
+</H3>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+MARGARET VANDERCOOK
+</H2>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+Author of "The Ranch Girls" Series, "The Red<BR>
+Cross Girls" Series, etc.<BR>
+</H4>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+ILLUSTRATED
+</H4>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+PHILADELPHIA
+<BR>
+THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO.
+<BR>
+PUBLISHERS
+</H4>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H5 ALIGN="center">
+Copyright 1914, by
+<BR>
+THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY
+</H5>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+CONTENTS
+</H2>
+
+<BR>
+
+<CENTER>
+
+<TABLE WIDTH="80%">
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap01">"DO YOU REMEMBER ME?"</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap02">BETTY'S KNIGHT</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap03">HER PENSION</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap04">TEMPTATION</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap05">THE WAY OF THE WILFUL</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap06">ESTHER'S ROOM</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap07">THE THREAT</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap08">PREPARATIONS FOB THE HOLIDAYS</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap09">THE CASTLE OF LIFE</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap10">THE RECOGNITION</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap11">SUNRISE CABIN AGAIN</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap12">"LIFE'S LITTLE IRONIES"</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap13">THE INVALIDS</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap14">"WHICH COMES LIKE A BENEDICTION"</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap15">SECRETS</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap16">THE LAW OF THE FIRE</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap17">A FIGURE IN THE NIGHT</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap18">UNCERTAINTY</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap19">AN UNSPOKEN POSSIBILITY</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap20">THE BEGINNING OF LIGHT</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap21">BETTY FINDS OUT</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap22">SUNRISE CABIN</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XXIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap23">FAREWELLS</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+</TABLE>
+
+</CENTER>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+</H2>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3>
+<A HREF="#img-front">
+"ESTHER CRIPPEN, THAT IS THE LOVELIEST SONG<BR>
+IN THE WORLD!"&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. <I>Frontispiece</I>
+</A>
+</H3>
+
+<H3>
+<A HREF="#img-021">
+"THERE ISN'T ANYTHING MUCH TO TELL"
+</A>
+</H3>
+
+<H3>
+<A HREF="#img-153">
+THE PROFESSOR HAD TO WIPE HIS GLASSES
+</A>
+</H3>
+
+<H3>
+<A HREF="#img-245">
+"I WON'T INTERFERE WITH YOUR DESTINATION"
+</A>
+</H3>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap01"></A>
+
+<H1 ALIGN="center">
+The Camp Fire Girls<BR>
+in the Outside World
+</H1>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER I
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+"DO YOU REMEMBER ME?"
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Walking slowly down a broad stairway, a girl carried three old silver
+candlesticks in her hands.  And although the hallway was in
+semi-darkness, the candles had not yet been lighted.  It was a cold
+November afternoon and the great house was chill and silent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Entering the drawing room, she placed the candles upon the mantelpiece.
+Her breath was like a small gray cloud before her; and her dress, too,
+was the color of the mist and soft and clinging.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Work, health and love," she murmured quietly, striking a match and
+watching the candles flicker and flare until finally they burned with a
+steady glow.  "If one has these three things in life as I have, what
+else is worth worrying over?"  Then the sigh that came in answer to her
+own question almost extinguished the candle flames.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There are bills and boarders of course&mdash;too many of the first and at
+present none of the second," she added with a kind of whimsical smile.
+"But, oh dear, what a trying Thanksgiving day this has been, when even
+the Camp Fire ideals won't comfort me!  Dick 'way off in Germany, Polly
+and Esther studying in New York and me face to face with my failure to
+save the old house.  It is not worth while pretending; the house must
+be sold and mother and I shall have to find some other place to live.
+In the morning I will go and tell Judge Maynard that I give up."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sadly Betty Ashton glanced about the familiar room.  The portraits of
+her New England ancestors appeared to gaze coldly and reproachfully
+down upon her.  They had not been of the stuff of which failures are
+made.  Her grand piano was closed and dusty, the window blinds were
+partly pulled down, and although a fire was laid in the grate, it was
+not burning.  Dust, cold and an unaccustomed atmosphere of neglect
+enveloped everything.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With a lifting of her head and a tightening of her lips that gave her
+face a new expression, the girl suddenly pulled open a table drawer and
+began fiercely to polish the top of the piano while she talked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There is no reason why I should allow this place to look so dismal
+just because things have gone wrong with my efforts to keep boarders
+and continue my work at school.  As no one is coming to see me I can't
+afford a fire, but I'll open the piano and place Esther's song, 'The
+Soul's Desire,' on the music rack, just as though she were at home to
+sing it for me.  Dick's dull old books shall lie here on the table
+where he used to leave them, near this red rose that John Everett
+brought me this morning.  Somehow the rose makes me think of Polly.  It
+is so radiant.  How curious that certain persons suggest certain
+colors!  Now Polly is often pale as a ghost, and yet red always makes
+me recall her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A few moments afterwards and Betty moved toward the front window and
+stood there staring out into the street, too deep in thought to be
+actually conscious of what she was doing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had changed in the past six months of struggle with poverty and
+work beyond her strength.  There were shadows under her gray eyes and
+worried lines about the corners of her mouth.  Instead of being slim as
+formerly, she was undeniably so thin that even the folds of her
+delicate crepe dress could not wholly disguise it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was not that Mrs. Ashton and Betty had spent this lonely day in
+their old home, because their former friends had neglected them.
+Indeed, they had had invitations to Thanksgiving dinners from half a
+dozen sources.  But Mrs. Ashton had not been well in several months and
+was today too ill for her daughter to leave her.  The two women were
+now entirely alone in the house.  One by one their boarders had
+deserted them, and the previous week they had even felt compelled to
+give up the old cook, who had been in the service of the Ashton family
+for twenty years.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At first Betty saw nothing to attract her attention in the street
+outside&mdash;not a single passer-by.  It was odd how quiet and cold the
+world seemed with her mother asleep in one of the far-away rooms
+upstairs and other persons evidently too much interested in indoor
+amusements to care for wandering through the dull town.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In another instant, however, the girl's attention was caught by the
+appearance of a figure which seemed to spring up suddenly out of
+nowhere and to stand gazing intently toward the Ashton house.  It was
+almost dark, and yet Betty could distinguish a young man, roughly
+dressed, wearing no overcoat, with his coat collar turned up and a cap
+pulled down over his eyes.  Without being frightened, she was curious
+and interested.  Why should the man behave so queerly?  He now walked
+past the house and then turned and came back, not once but several
+times.  Evidently he had not observed the girl at the window.  At last
+however he gave up, and Betty believed that she saw him disappear
+behind the closed cottage of the O'Neills.  No longer entertained, she
+prepared to leave the drawing room.  It was too chilly to remain there
+any longer.  Moreover, studying the familiar objects she had loved so
+long only made the thought of their surrender more painful.  Betty once
+more faced her three candles.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"Be strong as the fagots are sturdy;<BR>
+Be pure in your deepest desire;<BR>
+Be true to the truth that is in you;"<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And&mdash;follow the law of the fire," she repeated with a catch in her
+breath.  Then with greater strength and resolution in her face she blew
+out two of the candles, and picking up the third, started on her way
+upstairs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next moment there came a quick, muffled ring at the front door bell.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girl hesitated; yet there was no one else in the house to answer
+the bell, and only a friend, she thought, could come at this hour.
+Shading her light from the wind with one hand she pulled open the door
+with the other, already smiling with pleasure at the idea of thus
+ending her loneliness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Close against the door she discovered the young man whom she had seen
+only a few moments before in the street.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He did not speak nor move immediately.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What do you wish?" Betty demanded a trifle impatiently.  The fellow
+had both fists rammed deep into his pockets and had not the courtesy to
+remove his hat.  With a slight sense of uneasiness, Betty thought of
+closing the door.  The unexpected visitor kept edging closer toward her
+and was apparently fumbling for something in his coat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Please tell me what it is you want at once," the girl repeated almost
+angrily.  "This is Mrs. Ashton's house if you are looking for it.  My
+mother and I are entirely alone."  Having made this speech Betty
+instantly recognized its stupidity and regretted it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However the young man had at last succeeded in removing a small oblong
+package from his pocket, which he silently thrust toward her.  On the
+wrapper in big letters, such as a child might have written, the girl
+was able to decipher her own name.  But while she was puzzling over it,
+and before she could thank the messenger, he had hurried off.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty set her candle down on the lowest of the front steps and kneeling
+before it rapidly undid her parcel.  Inside the paper she discovered a
+crudely hand-carved wooden box, and opening the lid, a blank sheet of
+folded white paper.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She shook the paper.  Had some one sent her a Thanksgiving present or
+was she being made the victim of a joke?  But from between the blank
+sheets something slowly fluttered to her feet.  And picking it up with
+a little cry of surprise Betty saw a crisp new ten dollar bill.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Immediately her cheeks turned scarlet and her eyes filled with
+indignant tears.  Only by an effort of will could the tears be kept
+from falling.  Did any one of her friends consider her so
+poverty-stricken that it was necessary to send her money in this
+anonymous fashion?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Scarcely waiting to think, Betty rushed out of the house and down the
+old paved brick walk out into the street.  For there might be a bare
+chance that the messenger was not yet out of sight.  Sure enough, there
+he was still loitering on the corner about half a block away.
+Bareheaded, and in her thin dress, with the money in her hand, the girl
+ran forward.  And actually as she reached the young man, she caught him
+fast by the sleeve.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Please, you must tell me who sent me this money or else take it back
+at once and say that though I am very much obliged I cannot receive a
+gift delivered in this secret fashion."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The two young people were standing near an electric light so that they
+could now see each other plainly.  Betty observed a tall, overgrown boy
+with thin, straight features and clear hazel eyes, and now that his hat
+was removed, a mass of curly dark hair, which had been vainly smoothed
+down.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I can't take the money back, since it belongs to you," the young man
+answered awkwardly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Inside her Betty heard a small voice whispering: "If it only really
+did!"  For the ten dollars would buy Christmas presents for her mother,
+for Polly and Esther and others of her friends.  Nevertheless she shook
+her head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The money cannot be mine and so you must return it."  Then finding
+that her insistence was failing to have any effect, she dropped the
+money on the ground at the young fellow's feet and walked away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But, Miss Ashton," the stranger's voice argued, "please believe me
+when I say that this money is yours.  Oh, of course I don't mean this
+special ten dollar bill; for yours was spent nearly a year ago.  But at
+least the money represents the same amount."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty paused and again faced the speaker.  There was sincerity in his
+tone&mdash;a determined appeal.  But what on earth could he be talking
+about?  He looked perfectly rational, although his statement was so
+extraordinary.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You don't recognize me and I am truly glad," the young man went on.
+"But can't you recall once having befriended a fellow when instead you
+ought to have sent him to jail?  He did not deserve your kindness then.
+He was actually trying to steal from you the money which you afterwards
+gave him of your own free will.  But he has tried since to be honest."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He ceased abruptly.  For Betty's eyes were shining and she was
+thrusting her little cold hand into his big one.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're not!" she exclaimed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes I am," the boy returned.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Anthony Graham, Nan's brother?" Betty laughed happily.  "Then please
+give me back the money I refused.  I did not understand that you were
+returning the loan.  Of course I understand how you feel about it.  And
+do come back and into the house with me.  I so want you to tell me all
+about yourself.  I hope you have had splendid luck."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The young man's shabby appearance did not suggest sudden riches.
+Nevertheless he smiled.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For more than ever did Betty Ashton appear to him like the Princess of
+his dreams.  Only once before had he met her face to face.  And yet the
+vision had never left him.  He could still see the picture of a girl
+moving toward him, her face filled with shame&mdash;for him&mdash;and her eyes
+downcast; and thrusting into his clenched fist, which had so lately
+been raised to injure her, the money which had given him the desired
+opportunity for getting away from his old associations and beginning
+again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Enter her home and tell her of his struggle!  Anthony felt far more
+like kneeling in the dust at her feet.  Yet being a boy he could only
+blush and stammer without words to voice his gratitude.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty was beginning to shiver.  "Please come, I am so lonely," she
+urged.  "I have had the horridest kind of a Thanksgiving day.  Only a
+little while ago I was having a hard time trying to remember the things
+that I have to be thankful for."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap02"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER II
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+BETTY'S KNIGHT
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+The drawing room fire was soon
+crackling.  "It is so nice to feel
+I have the privilege of lighting it;
+I have been dying to for the past hour,
+but didn't think I could afford it without
+company," Betty confided, blowing at the
+flames.  "Do please get some chairs and
+let us draw up quite close.  It is so much
+pleasanter to talk that way."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yet Anthony Graham only stared without
+moving.  To think of a Princess speaking
+of not being able to afford so inexpensive a
+luxury as a fire.  Suddenly the young man
+longed to be able immediately to chop
+down an entire forest of trees and lay it as
+a thank offering before her.  Of course his
+sister Nan had written him of Mr. Ashton's
+death and of the change in the family
+fortunes, but to associate real poverty with
+his conception of Betty was impossible.
+Glancing uneasily about the great room it
+was good to see how beautiful it still
+looked, how perfect a setting for its young
+mistress.  So at least they were able to keep
+their handsome home.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To the young man Betty Ashton now
+appeared more beautiful than his former
+impression of her.  For on the day of their
+original meeting she had worn a fur coat
+and a cap covering her hair and a portion
+of her face.  But now the three Camp
+Fire candles were once more burning,
+forming a kind of shining background for the
+girl's figure.  Her hair was a deep red
+brown, with bronze tones, the colors in the
+autumn woods.  There was no longer any
+sign of pallor or weariness in her cheeks,
+for pleasure and excitement had
+reawakened the old Betty.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do sit down," she urged again.  "I
+want to hear all about you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then, coming to his senses, Anthony
+managed to drag two comfortable chairs
+before the blaze.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There isn't anything much to tell,"
+he began shyly.  "Only after you gave me
+that money I just started walking farther
+and farther away from Woodford.  Why,
+it seemed to me that I didn't ever want to
+stop, for that would give me a chance to
+realize what I had done.  And I didn't
+stop, either, until I was too dead tired to
+go on.  But by that time I had come to
+another town and it must have been pretty
+late, because the main street was empty.
+I was passing along close to the wall of a
+building when I saw that an office door had
+been left open.  It was pretty cold, so I
+peeped in.  The room was dark and there
+was nobody about, so creeping inside I
+lay down on the floor and went to sleep."  The
+boy stopped, but his listener was leaning
+forward with her hands clasped and her
+lips parted with eagerness.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-021"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-021.jpg" ALT="&quot;There isn't anything much to tell&quot;" BORDER="2" WIDTH="351" HEIGHT="601">
+<H3 CLASS="h3center" STYLE="width: 351px">
+&quot;There isn't anything much to tell&quot;
+</H3>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"Do go on and tell me every detail.  It
+sounds just like a story," she entreated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"When I woke up it was daylight and
+I found that I had landed in a dusty,
+untidy place, littered with old books and
+papers," he continued.  "A small stove in
+the corner was choked up with ashes.  I
+can't tell exactly why, but the first thing
+I did that morning was to scrape out those
+ashes, and then I found some sticks and
+coals and built a fresh fire."  Anthony
+flashed a glance at Betty out of his shy,
+almost frightened blue eyes.  "I guess I
+was feeling kind of well disposed toward
+fires just then, camp fires anyhow.  Then
+I was thinking that I would like to pay for
+my night's lodging in some way.  I fell to
+brushing out the room, so that when the
+young man came down later he would find
+his office cleaned up.  Seemed like all of a
+sudden, after what had happened between
+you and me, that I wanted to work and
+pay my own way.  I had never before been
+anything but a loafer."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you couldn't have known that the
+office belonged to a young man unless you
+waited there until after he came in!"
+Betty exclaimed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Anthony laughed.  "Oh, yes, I waited
+all right and I have been in that same
+office more or less ever since, until I came
+home to Woodford the day before yesterday.
+Of course I meant to clear out as
+soon as I had finished, but while I was
+working I heard a quiet chuckle behind me,
+and swinging around, there stood Mr. Andrews!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But who was or is this Mr. Andrews?"
+Betty asked impatiently, too interested to
+be particularly polite.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My next best friend, after you," the
+young fellow answered.  "Why, I think I
+can remember even now his very first
+words to me: 'Hello,' he said, 'why are
+you doing me such a good turn?'  'Because
+you have just done me one.  I slept all
+night in your office,' I answered.  He
+didn't seem surprised and I thought that
+rather funny.  But afterwards I learned
+that he had been a poor boy himself and
+had slept in all sorts of queer places.
+He is still poor enough, goodness knows,
+but he has graduated in law and set
+up an office.  He will succeed some
+day, sure as faith.  You can bet on him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty bit her lips, her eyes dancing with
+amusement and curiosity.  Actually her
+visitor was becoming so much in earnest
+over his friend that he was forgetting to
+be afraid of her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But what about you and your success?"
+she demanded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The young man flushed, moving uncomfortably
+in his chair, as though yearning to
+get away from his questioner, and yet not
+knowing exactly how.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Success, <I>my</I> success?  I haven't yet
+used that word in connection with myself.
+I have just managed to keep on working,
+that's about all.  Mr. Andrews let me
+continue sleeping in his office after I told him
+my story and cleaning it to pay for my
+lodging.  Then by getting up early enough
+I arranged to take care of a few others for
+money and to run errands now and then.
+I read in between times."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Read?  Read what?" Betty inquired
+inexorably, half smiling and half frowning
+at her own persistence.  For somehow in
+their half hour's talk together she had seen
+something in Anthony Graham that made
+her guess that the young man had worked
+harder and dreamed better in this past
+year than he was willing to acknowledge to her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Anthony got up from his chair and
+began deliberately backing toward the door.
+He seemed suddenly to have became more
+awkward and self-conscious.  "I read the
+law books, as there wasn't anything else to
+read.  And I was determined to get more
+education so that in the future Nan need
+not be ashamed of me.  Afterwards I
+went to night school and&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So you have made up your mind to be
+a lawyer yourself some day."  Betty sighed
+with satisfaction.  How very like a book
+his confession sounded!  She wanted to
+get more information from her visitor and
+yet at the same time longed to rush upstairs
+and commence a letter to Polly O'Neill at
+once.  Wouldn't Polly be interested?  For
+she had predicted on the day of their first
+meeting that the young man would either
+turn out to be absolutely no good, or else
+(and here Betty blushed, recalling the
+prophecy) "Remain your faithful knight to
+the end of the chapter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But why did you come back to Woodford
+if this Mr. Andrews was befriending
+you and giving you a chance?" she
+inquired, fearing that her illusion might now
+be shattered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The young man did not reply at once.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And he scowled until Betty had an uncomfortable
+recollection of the expression which
+she had seen on his face the day of his
+attack upon Polly and her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then after moving a few steps nearer the
+fire so that he and the girl were once more
+facing each other, Betty could see that
+his scowl had been due to embarrassment
+and not anger.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are awfully good to be willing to
+listen to so long a tale of a ne'er-do-well,"
+he returned.  "I came back to
+Woodford because I was determined to
+make good in my own town.  A fellow that
+can't trust himself in the face of
+temptations isn't worth being trusted.  I'm going
+back to Mr. Andrews later, perhaps, but
+this winter I am to stick right here in
+Woodford and live down my bad name if
+I can.  Judge Maynard says he will give
+me the same kind of a chance that
+Mr. Andrews did, if I am worth it.  And I
+shall be able to see Nan and the others now
+and then.  It didn't seem fair for me to be
+leaving all the family troubles to a girl."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Involuntarily Betty clapped her hands.
+She had not intended to express her
+emotion openly, but so pleased was she with
+Anthony's reply that she couldn't help it.
+The next moment she felt a little ashamed
+of her enthusiasm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Nan is equal to almost anything;
+we consider her the greatest success in our
+Camp Fire club," Betty protested.  "Nan
+is studying domestic science at the High
+School and intends teaching it some day,
+so she will make you awfully comfortable
+at home."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The young man put out his hand.
+"Good-bye," he said.  "I never dreamed
+I would be brave enough to ask you to
+shake hands with me for a good many
+years yet.  But since you have been kind
+enough&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"To ask you ten thousand questions,"
+Betty laughed, rising and putting out
+both hands with a friendly gesture, and
+then moving toward the door with her
+caller.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am not going to be able to live at
+home, however," Anthony concluded.  "It
+is too far to our little place to get into
+town early enough for my work and to
+be here in the evenings for the night school.
+I've got to find a room somewhere.  I
+oughtn't to kick because nobody seems
+crazy to let me stay in their house.  I
+did leave a pretty poor reputation behind
+me around here and I've got to <I>show</I>
+people first that I mean to behave differently.
+I guess I'll strike better luck later."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Although Betty was extremely
+sympathetic, she did not answer at once.
+For a sudden surprising understanding had
+come to her.  How difficult it must be for
+any one to have to go about telling his
+acquaintances of his reformation before
+having the chance to prove it.  Then an
+almost appealing expression crept into her
+face, making her cheeks flush hotly and
+her lashes droop.  Her old friends would
+have recognized the look.  For it was the
+one that she most often wore when she
+desired to do another person a kindness
+and feared she might not be allowed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Couldn't you, won't you come here
+and have a room with us?" she asked
+unexpectedly.  "We have such heaps of
+rooms in this old house and now mother
+and I are here alone, we really would like
+to have you for protection.  And if you
+don't like to accept with just my
+invitation, will you come in again tomorrow
+or next day?  I am sure mother will wish
+to ask you too."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Anthony Graham had had rather a rough
+time always.  He had a peculiar disposition,
+and all his life probably liked only a
+few people very deeply.  His wasted
+youth&mdash;nearly twenty years of idling rather than
+study or work&mdash;and his mixed parentage&mdash;the
+Italian peasant mother and his New
+England father&mdash;would make his struggle
+in the world a long and an uphill one even
+if he should finally succeed.  Among the
+first things he meant to learn was not to
+show his emotions too easily, to hide his
+feelings whenever he could, so that he
+might learn to take without apparent
+flinching the hard knocks that life was
+sure to send.  He had been preparing
+himself for the unkindnesses.  Now at
+Betty's words he felt a lump forming in
+his throat and had a terrified moment of
+believing that he was about to cry like a
+girl.  For could it be possible that any
+human being could so forgive one's sins
+as almost to forget them?  Yet here was
+Betty Ashton asking him to stay in her
+home to protect her mother and herself
+when his only other meeting had been his
+effort to rob her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Anthony set his teeth.  "I can't live in
+so grand a house as this.  I couldn't afford
+it," he replied huskily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was on the tip of Betty's tongue to
+protest that she had never dreamed of
+Anthony's paying anything.  For Betty
+Ashton, whatever the degree of her poverty,
+could never fail in generosity, since
+generosity is a matter not of the pocketbook
+but of the spirit.  However, all of a sudden
+she appreciated that the young man had
+quite as much right to his self-respect as
+she had to hers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Even the little will be a help to mother
+and me," she returned more humbly than
+any one else had ever before heard her speak.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But perhaps I could be useful.  Maybe
+you haven't so many servants as you once
+had&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Anthony stopped, for Betty's expression
+had changed so completely.  Of course
+she had already repented of her offer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We have no servants and you could
+help a great deal," she answered.  And
+then without any pretense of concealing
+them, she let two tears slide down her
+face.  "It is only that I had forgotten
+for the moment that we are not going to
+be able to stay in our house much longer.
+We can't afford to keep it for ourselves
+and I haven't been a success with having
+boarders.  Still it may be some time before
+we can rent or sell it, and if you will stay
+here until then&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty winced, for her visitor had this
+time clasped her hand until the pressure
+of its hard surface hurt.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You know it would be the greatest
+thing that ever happened for me to be
+allowed to stay here a week," he added.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Betty laughed.  "Then stay."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As she opened the front door another
+visitor stood waiting on the outside.  He
+was almost as unexpected as Anthony
+Graham.  For it was Herr Crippen, the
+German music professor and Esther's father.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What on earth could he want?" Betty
+thought irritably.  She was beginning to
+feel anxious to get upstairs to her mother
+again.  For in spite of the fact that she
+now believed that she had a real affection
+for Esther, she had never been able to
+recover from her first prejudice for this
+shabby, hesitating man.  Then his manner
+toward her was always so apologetic.  Why
+on earth should it be?  She was always
+perfectly polite to him.  What a queer
+combination of Thanksgiving visitors she
+was having!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Gnädiges Fräulein," he began.  And
+Betty ushered him into the drawing room.
+For perhaps he was bringing her news of Esther.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap03"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER III
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+HER PENSION
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"Good luck never rains but it pours, as well as bad luck, mother,"
+Betty Ashton said one morning nearly a week later.  She had just put
+down a big tray of breakfast on a small table before Mrs. Ashton and
+now seated herself on the opposite side.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Ashton sighed.  "If your good luck storm has any reference to us,
+Betty dear, I am sure I don't get your point of view.  For if anything
+but misfortune has followed our footsteps since your father's death I
+am sure I should like to hear what it is."  And Mrs. Ashton shivered,
+drawing her light woolen shawl closer about her shoulders.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There are some persons in this world whom troubles brace.  After the
+first shock of a sorrow or calamity has passed they stand reinforced
+with new strength and new courage.  These are the world's successful
+people.  For after a while, ill luck, finding that it can never down a
+really valiant spirit, grows weary and leaves it alone.  Then the good
+things have their turn&mdash;health, better and more admiring friends, fame,
+money, love.  Whatever the struggle has been made for, if it has been
+sufficiently brave and persistent, the reward is sure.  But there are
+other men and women, or girls and boys, for age makes no difference,
+who go down like wilted flowers in the teeth of the first storm.  And
+on them life is apt to trample, misfortunes to pile up.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Ashton was one of these women.  She had made things doubly hard
+for Betty and Dick.  Indeed, except for his sister, Richard Ashton
+would never have had the strength of purpose to sail for Germany to
+complete his medical studies.  He would simply have surrendered and
+commenced his practice of medicine in Woodford without being properly
+equipped for perhaps the greatest of all the professions&mdash;the struggle
+to conquer disease.  Yet somehow Betty had had a clearer vision than
+can be expected of most girls of her age.  In a vague way she had
+understood that it is oftentimes wiser to make a present sacrifice for
+some greater future gain.  So she had persuaded Dick to use the little
+money that he had for his work, assuring him that she and her mother
+could get on perfectly well together at home.  And with half a dozen
+summer boarders at the time of his leaving, it did look to Dick as
+though her confidence was not misplaced.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Now in answer to her mother's speech Betty said nothing at first.  So
+that several tears sliding down Mrs. Ashton's cheeks watered her hot
+buttered toast.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am sure I never expected to live to see this day, my dear, when you
+would have to cook your own breakfast and mine before you could leave
+for school," she murmured.  "Why, I never thought that you would have
+to turn over your hand even to look after yourself.  Until you
+developed that Camp Fire enthusiasm you had not been taught a single
+useful thing.  After all, perhaps it might have been better for you if
+I had never been your mother, if&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty laughed teasingly.  "My dear Mrs. Ashton, you talk as if you
+could have avoided that affliction!  You could not very well have
+helped being my mother, could you?  You did not deliberately choose me
+out from a lot of girls.  Because if you did, I should have very little
+respect for your good judgment.  Think, if you might have selected
+either Polly or Esther!  Why, then you would be sure to be rich again
+some day.  For one of them would act so marvelously that she would be
+able to cast laurels at your feet, while the other would sing you back
+to fortune.  But as it is, you will just have to put up with poor me
+until Dick gets his chance.  Now do eat your breakfast while I relate
+the details of our good luck storm.  In the first place, we are not
+going to have to give up our beloved house.  At least not yet, and
+perhaps never if our German-American Pension plan turns out
+satisfactorily."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty drank a swallow of coffee, hardly appreciating what she was
+doing, so deep was her absorption in their affairs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Honestly, mother, I should never have dreamed of being so interested
+in this plan of Rose's and Miss McMurtry's for us, if it had not been
+for Dick's letters.  But if German ladies can keep successful pensions,
+why not Americans?  Remember what a funny lot of people Dick has
+described&mdash;the fat widow with the two musical daughters.  I hope one of
+them won't set her cap for Dick, he loves music so dearly.  Then you
+know the young boy student who was nearly starving when Dick rescued
+him, and the old Baron who wears a wig, and the half dozen others?  But
+no matter how queer and funny they may be, they can be no more so than
+our pensioners.  There is Miss McMurtry herself and Anthony Graham, and
+Dr. Barton moving into town to have an office in our old library.  I
+wonder sometimes if he and Rose are still friends.  They had a
+disagreement once out at the cabin and she just speaks to him since."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then Betty Ashton hesitated and devoted herself to finishing her
+breakfast.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am sure I don't understand why you fail to mention Herr Crippen,
+child, who is to have a room here with us and teach his pupils in our
+big drawing room.  I am glad he has been so successful with his music
+pupils that he is able to give Esther the advantage of studying in New
+York.  I wish you did not have such a ridiculous prejudice against him.
+Indeed, my dear, I have a very strong reason for insisting that you be
+kind to him.  He is Esther's father and&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Ashton spoke more firmly than was usual with her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Betty shrugged her shoulders imperceptibly.  "Oh, of course I am
+glad enough to have the Professor here and I have never said I did not
+like him.  But I am specially happy that Edith Norton's family has
+moved away so she is to have a room with us.  I am kind of lonely
+without Polly and Esther, and somehow Edith,"&mdash;&mdash;Betty broke off
+abruptly.  Not even to her mother did she feel like mentioning the fact
+that Edith did not seem to be turning out quite so well as the other
+Sunrise Camp Fire girls.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With a hurried movement she next picked up the breakfast tray,
+exclaiming:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thank heavens we are not going to have to give our lodgers anything
+but their rooms and that Martha is coming back to do our cooking and
+the cleaning.  Good old soul to offer to do it without pay.  She said
+that she could not bear living anywhere except with us and that she had
+enough of father's money stored away in bank not to need any more.  But
+we could not have had her work without pay."  Betty kissed her mother
+lightly on the forehead.  "If any one else turns up today and wishes a
+room, just refer them to me.  I'm afraid I won't leave us a bed to
+sleep in.  I am getting so anxious to surprise Dick by really earning a
+lot of money."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, don't rent the back room that Esther used to have, Betty.  You
+may move into it yourself some day if you like, but I would rather not
+have a stranger occupy it.  I&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What on earth is queer about that room?" Betty interrupted.  "I have
+not time to listen now, but you <I>must</I> tell me.  You talk as though it
+were a kind of Bluebeard's Chamber of Horrors.  Yet I don't suppose you
+would put me in it if I were likely to have my head cut off in
+consequence.  Good-bye, dear."  And Betty fled out into the hall,
+realizing that it must be almost school time.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The door of Esther's old room happened by accident to be standing open,
+and still holding on to her tray, Betty paused before it for a few
+moments.  She was not thinking of a possible mystery or secret in
+connection with the room, only wondering if Esther and Polly were to be
+at home for the Christmas holidays.  They both wanted to come, she
+thought.  But Esther was not sure of being able to afford it and Polly
+was uncertain of whether she wished to stay in her stepfather's house
+at a time when her stepbrother, Frank Wharton, whom she disliked so
+much, should also be at home for his holidays.  The girl's face was a
+little wistful.  She so longed to see both her friends.  Without them
+and without Dick, this first Christmas under such changed conditions at
+home might be rather trying.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh!" Betty exclaimed a trifle indignantly, with her arm shaking so
+that the dishes in her hands rattled dangerously.  "What in the world
+are you doing in the house at this hour, Anthony Graham?  You
+frightened me nearly to death, turning up at my elbow in such an
+unexpected fashion.  I thought you had been gone hours!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Anthony put down his coal scuttle and took hold of Betty's tray.  "I
+have been away, but I came back for a moment because your mother wished
+me to do something for her as soon as I had the spare time."  His tone
+was so surly that Betty smiled.  Anthony had been brought up with such
+a different class of people that he was unable to understand sarcasm or
+pretense of any kind.  Whatever one said he accepted in exactly the
+words in which it was spoken.  And Betty and her friends had always
+been accustomed to joking with one another, to saying one thing, often
+meaning another.  Anthony should have had the sense to realize that she
+was not really cross, that her indignation was partly assumed.
+Therefore she did not intend taking the trouble to set him right in the
+present instance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll carry the dishes down myself.  I have plenty of time," she
+protested coldly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Anthony only held the more firmly to the tray, with his face
+crimsoning.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The truth was that he had been appreciating in the past few days a
+truth of which the girl herself was as yet unconscious.  Betty's manner
+toward him had noticeably changed.  In the excitement of their
+Thanksgiving day meeting and his romantic return of the money which she
+had completely forgotten, she had shown far more interest and
+friendliness than she now did.  On that occasion Betty had overlooked
+the young fellow's roughness, his lack of education and family
+advantages.  Really Anthony had never been taught even the common
+civilities of life and had to trust to a kind of instinct, even in
+knowing when to take off his hat, when to shake hands, how to enter or
+leave a room.  And he understood keenly enough his own limitations.
+Yet the change in Betty's attitude had hurt him, even though he
+acknowledged to himself his failure to deserve even her original
+kindness.  She was still kind enough of course in the things which she
+thought counted.  She was cordial about his having his room in the
+house with her mother and herself and most careful of thanking him for
+any assistance which he rendered them.  Yet the difference was there.
+For neither in heart nor mind had Betty yet grown big enough to feel
+real comradeship with a boy so beneath her in social position and
+opportunities.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nevertheless she did not mean to be ungracious and something in the
+carriage of the young man's head as he moved off down the hall
+suggested that he was either hurt or angry, although exactly why Betty
+could not understand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't go for a second, Anthony," she called after him.  "I wanted to
+tell you that you are living in a house with a haunted chamber.  At
+least I don't know whether this room is exactly haunted, but there is
+something queer about it that my mother and brother have never confided
+to me.  Perhaps I shall move in and find out for myself what it is.  I
+will if there is a chance of my friends, Esther Crippen and Polly
+O'Neill, coming home for the holidays.  For it is so big that we could
+stay in it together.  And perhaps Mrs. O'Neill will let Polly come here
+and visit me for a little while.  Both the girls are doing wonderful
+things in New York City.  And I am afraid if they don't come home
+pretty soon they will both have outgrown me.  It is so horrid to be a
+perfectly ordinary person."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As Betty moved off, the expression on her companion's face did not
+suggest that he thought of her as entirely ordinary.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap04"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER IV
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+TEMPTATION
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"You are perfectly absurd and I haven't the faintest intention of
+confiding in any one of you."  And Polly O'Neill, with her cheeks
+flaming, rushed away from a group of girls and into her own bedroom,
+closing the door and locking it behind her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This winter at boarding school in New York City had not been in the
+least what she had anticipated.  Perhaps the character of the school
+she and her mother had chosen had been unfortunate.  Yet they had
+selected it with the greatest care and it was expensive beyond Polly's
+wildest dreams.  For, apart from her own small inheritance, her
+stepfather, Mr. Wharton, had insisted on being allowed to contribute to
+her support, and not to appear too ungracious both to her mother and to
+him, his offer had been accepted.  Yet Polly did not consider herself
+any greater success in thus masquerading as a rich girl than she had
+been as a poor one.  Was she never to be satisfied?  Her school
+companions were all wealthy and few of them had any ideas beyond
+clothes and society.  To them Polly had seemed a kind of curiosity.
+She was so impetuous, so brilliant, so full of a thousand moods.  Betty
+Ashton had once said that to know Polly O'Neill was a liberal
+education, and yet in order to know her one ought to have had a liberal
+education beforehand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Today during the recreation hour at "Miss Elkins' Finishing School,"
+which was Polly's present abode, there had been a sudden discussion of
+plans for the future.  And Polly, partly because she was in a
+contradictory mood and partly because she really wished it to be known,
+had boldly announced herself as poor as a church mouse with no chance
+of not starving to death in the future unless she could learn to make
+her own living.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And this had started the onslaught of questions from which she had just
+torn herself away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For Polly had absolutely determined not to confide in any one of her
+new companions her ambition to go upon the stage.  They would not
+understand and would only be stupid and inquisitive.  Why, had they not
+worried her nearly to death simply because of her acquaintance with
+Miss Margaret Adams?  For one day the great actress had driven up to
+the school and taken Polly for a drive.  And ever afterwards the other
+girls were determined to find out how and when she had met her and what
+she was like in every smallest particular, until Polly was nearly
+frantic.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Now in her own room, which was a small one, but belonged to her alone,
+the girl dashed cold water on her face until she began to feel her
+temper cooling down.  Then with a book in her lap she planted herself
+in a low chair.  The book was a collection of Camp Fire songs which
+Sylvia Wharton had given her.  And although Polly could not sing, the
+poetry and inspiration of them was so lovely that she felt they might
+be a consoling influence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nevertheless Polly did not commence reading at once.  Instead, her thin
+shoulders drooped forward pathetically, and putting one elbow on her
+knee she rested her pointed chin in her hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For she was unhappy without any real reason in the world.  Polly
+O'Neill was one of the sensitive and emotional persons who must always
+be more or less miserable in the wrong environment.  She did not like
+being at boarding school and yet she did not wish to return to Woodford
+to live in her stepfather's house in circumstances so different from
+those of her old life.  Besides, had not Miss Adams advised that she
+spend several years away from Woodford in order to see more of the
+outside world and its myriad types of men and women?  She could not ask
+to be allowed to come back home now, after the fight she had made to
+leave.  Moreover, she was learning many things that might be useful to
+her as an actress.  Miss Adams herself had said so.  There was no fault
+with the opportunities for study at Miss Elkins', only with the
+interest of the girls.  She herself was working hard at French and
+German and physical culture and was having some special private
+teaching in elocution by a master recommended by Miss Adams.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+No, Polly did not intend to give up.  Only she was trying to decide
+whether or not to return to Woodford for the Christmas holidays.  She
+was longing to see her mother and Mollie and Betty Ashton.  Yet Frank
+Wharton would be at home and she and Frank had quarreled all the time
+that they had been in the house together during the past summer.  And
+her mother and Mollie were so wrapped up in one another and in the
+splendid new home and in Mr. Wharton!  Polly felt herself almost an
+outsider when she thought of the days when they had lived in their own
+little cottage just opposite the Princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then, at the thought of Betty Ashton, the slightly hard look in Polly's
+Irish blue eyes faded.  Of the Princess' understanding and affection
+she could always feel sure.  And what a brave fight she was making!
+Every letter from her mother or Mollie or from any one of their old
+Camp Fire circle had something admiring to say of her.  And yet she and
+Mollie had always thought of their Princess as only a spoiled darling,
+beautiful and meant only for cherishing.  Ah well, the Princess was
+really an aristocrat in the old meaning of the word.  She had never
+been in the least like these New York girls, caring for money for its
+own sake and feeling superior to other people just because of her
+money.  Betty had birth and beauty and brains.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Suddenly Polly dashed the tears from her eyes and with a smile jumped
+to her feet, dropping her Camp Fire book.  There was no use sitting
+there and thinking of all the virtues that her Princess possessed that
+began with "b."  This was Friday afternoon and she was free to do what
+she liked.  Esther was living in a boarding house not far away, and she
+had not seen her in two weeks.  And in all the world there was nothing
+Esther liked to talk about so much as Betty.  Besides, if Esther were
+going home for the holidays, why, Polly felt that she would rather like
+to have some one persuade her into making her own decision.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Is it good or evil fortune that makes one so readily influenced by
+outside conditions?  The December afternoon was cold and brilliant; and
+in few places is the climate of early winter so stimulating as in New
+York City.  Esther was not at home, and for a few minutes her visitor
+felt disappointed.  But the streets were so beautiful and alluring and
+there were so many people out!  It was true that Polly had received
+permission only to call upon her friend, but what wrong could there be
+in her taking a walk?  She had only to keep straight along Broadway and
+there could be no possible chance of getting lost.  Polly was not in
+the least timid or unable to take care of herself.  She was a girl from
+a small town, and yet no one could have imagined that she had not been
+a New Yorker all her life, except for her quick and eager interest in
+the sights about her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+No one noticed or molested Polly in the least.  It was only that in her
+usual unthinking fashion she flung herself into the way of temptation.
+Farther down Broadway than she had ever been before, Polly stopped for
+a moment to look more closely at a group of girls.  Most of them were
+several years older than herself.  They were standing close together
+near a closed door, and yet only occasionally did one of them make a
+remark to the other; for apparently they were strangers to one another.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At first the girls themselves attracted Polly's attention because the
+larger number appeared so nervous and anxious.  More than half of them
+had their faces rouged and powdered and were fashionably dressed, yet
+even when they smiled their expressions were uneasy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They interested the country girl immensely.  In order not to seem rude
+or inquisitive she pretended to wish to gaze into a shop window near
+them.  Then, as they continued waiting and showed no sign of what they
+were waiting for, Polly O'Neill's curiosity overcame her good manners.
+Another girl had separated herself from the group and was standing
+within two feet of Polly, also pretending to stare into the same window.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly edged closer to her.  The young woman must have been nearly
+twenty-five.  She had been pretty once, yet already her face was
+haggard and she had circles under her big brown eyes.  Unexpectedly
+Polly smiled at her, and there was always something almost irresistible
+in Polly's smile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Could you, would you mind telling me why so many girls are standing
+here in this one particular spot?" she inquired.  "It is a cold day
+when one is still.  And yet I have been here almost ten minutes and no
+one has even started to move away."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We are waiting to try to get jobs," the older girl answered
+listlessly.  "And we have come sooner than we were told because each
+one of us hoped to get ahead of the other."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Jobs?" Polly repeated stupidly.  "What kind of work is it that you are
+looking for?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, theatrical jobs," the young woman explained.  "It's coming on to
+be Christmas time and the managers are putting on extras for the
+holidays."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She turned away from her questioner, believing that she had heard a
+faint noise at the door near which they were lingering.  A quick tug at
+her coat attracted her attention again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Can any one apply for a position who wants it?" Polly queried.  Her
+eyes were shining, her cheeks were crimson and her breath coming in
+kind of broken gasps as though she were frightened.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the magic door had opened at last and the older woman had no time
+to waste.  "Oh, yes, any one can apply," she returned with a kind of
+hardness.  And then she failed to observe that the girl she had been
+talking with was following close behind her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly herself hardly realized what she was doing.  Once more she had
+yielded to that old wretched habit of hers, of acting first and then
+thinking afterwards.  Like a flash of lightning it had but this instant
+occurred to her that more than anything she would like to see inside a
+theatrical manager's office.  It would be like placing the tips of
+one's toes on the promised land.  Of course, Polly knew perfectly well
+that she was being reckless, only she would not allow herself time to
+consider this point of view.  She would simply slip in with these other
+girls and pretend that she would like a position should she be forced
+into it.  As she had had no experience, there could be no possibility
+of her getting an engagement.  Ten minutes afterwards she would slip
+out again and return to school.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With a dozen or more other girls, Polly was the next moment ushered
+into a room that was quite dark and had only a few chairs in it.  There
+they were told to wait until the manager could be free to speak to
+them.  So Polly crowded herself into the farthest, darkest corner and
+immediately her heart began to thump and her knees to shake, while she
+wished herself a thousand miles away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+What would her mother say to this latest of her escapades; and Mollie
+and Betty?  What would Miss Adams, for that matter, think of her?  She
+was an actress herself; but of course Polly never imagined that she had
+started her career in any such humble fashion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Coming partially to her senses, Polly started hurriedly toward the
+closed door.  There was no reason in the world for her remaining in
+this room unless she wished it.  But just as she turned the knob the
+manager entered from the hall.  And Polly's curiosity got the better of
+her again.  She would stay just half a minute longer and see what
+happened.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap05"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER V
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE WAY OF THE WILFUL
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+When Polly O'Neill came out into the street again, she did not know
+whether she was walking on the sidewalk, in the air, or at the bottom
+of the sea.  But because of a certain thrilling excitement she felt
+that she must have wings and because of a heavy weight inside her that
+she must be in the depth of the sea.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For Polly had just signed an engagement to act for two weeks in a
+Christmas pantomime.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It sounds incredible.  And it was possibly as unwise and headstrong a
+thing as a girl could well do.  And yet Polly had originally no actual
+intention or desire to do wrong.  Simply she had yielded to a sudden
+impulse, to an intense curiosity.  But now things were different; for
+Polly was realizing her wilfulness completely, and instead of repenting
+and turning back to confess her folly, was every moment trying to plan
+by what method her purpose could be accomplished.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Not for anything in the world would her mother give her consent to her
+experiment.  And that in itself should have been a sufficient argument
+against it.  Yet Polly explained to herself that, after all, there
+could not be any great harm in doing what she so much wished, provided
+that she made confession afterwards.  She was almost eighteen, and
+thousands of girls in New York City were earning their living, who were
+years younger than she.  Perhaps it might even do her good to find out
+what this stage life really was like&mdash;whether it was as fascinating as
+she dreamed, or all tinsel as most grown people were so fond of telling
+her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+No, the question that was uppermost with Polly O'Neill was not in
+connection with her decision.  It was how her decision might best be
+carried out.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Fortunately she had been writing that she did not believe that she
+would come home for the Christmas holidays.  She did wish to see her
+mother and Mollie and Betty, of course, and had almost given way to
+this longing only an hour before.  But now, had not fate itself
+intervened, flinging her into the path of her desire?  And Polly was
+Irish and had always declared that she believed in the leadings of
+fate, even when her mother and sister had insisted that fate and her
+own wish were too often confused in her mind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Had she not hidden herself in the corner when the theatrical manager
+entered the room, with every intention of running away as soon as she
+could escape unobserved?  And then had he not suddenly swooped down
+upon her, selecting her from the dozens of other applicants?  Polly was
+not exactly sure of what had happened, except that the man had said
+that she looked the part of the character he was after.  The fact that
+she had confessed having had no stage experience had not even deterred
+him.  The new play was to be chiefly for young people and the manager
+particularly required youthful actors and actresses.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The play to be produced was the dramatization of a wonderful old
+Bohemian fairy story, which Polly remembered to have read years before,
+called "The Castle of Life."  The story is that of a little boy,
+Grazioso, brought up by his grandmother, whom he loves better than all
+else in the world.  Then one day he sees that the grandmother is
+growing old and fears that she must soon leave him.  And so he sets out
+to find "The Castle of Life" in order once more to bring back youth to
+the old woman.  The play follows his adventures on the road to the
+castle, and includes his meeting with two fairies&mdash;the Fairy of the
+Woods and the Fairy of the Water.  Polly was to impersonate the wood
+spirit.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her appearance did suggest the character, though naturally she could
+not appreciate this fact.  But there was always something a bit eerie
+and fantastic about her, something not exactly of the everyday
+world&mdash;her high cheekbones and thin, emotional face with its scarlet
+lips and intense expression faintly foreshadowing an unusual future.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Polly at the present moment was not feeling in the least unusual,
+only rather more self-willed and more calculating.  Never could she
+recall having deliberately deceived any one before in her entire life.
+And yet to accomplish her present purpose there was no other way than
+the way of deception.  No one in Woodford must guess at her reason for
+remaining in New York during the holidays, nor must Miss Elkins have
+any possible cause for suspicion.  Of course she could not stay on at
+boarding school.  That idea was utterly ridiculous.  She would never be
+allowed to go out for a single evening alone.  Already her right to
+liberty had been considerably overreached by this walk of hers down
+town.  And what she had done during the walk!  The offender smiled
+rather wickedly at the thought of the consternation and excitement that
+the discovery of her act would create.  Home she would go to Woodford
+then to stay indefinitely!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Polly did not mean to be found out, She meant to have her little
+taste of emancipation and then go back into routine again, until she
+was old enough for a larger freedom.  So for this reason, although she
+should have returned to school an hour before, she continued walking
+slowly, devising and rejecting a dozen plans.  It was going to be
+tremendously difficult to accomplish her purpose.  But this she had
+foreseen five minutes after she had promised to accept the theatrical
+manager's offer.  However she would "find a way."  She remembered how
+often the Princess had said that she had more talent than "Sentimental
+Tommy" in this particular direction.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She reached Miss Elkins' school and received five minutes' scolding
+from that lady, in the meekest spirit, still without having any idea of
+what she could possibly do to accomplish her design.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All evening she talked so little and her attention was so concentrated
+upon the lesson which she appeared to be studying, that her school
+companions left her entirely alone.  Polly's passion for studying had
+always been regarded as an eccentricity.  But now since she had
+announced on that afternoon that she had her own living to make there
+was possibly some excuse for her industry.  Nevertheless the girls felt
+more convinced than ever that she was not in the least like any of the
+rest of them and, although rather fascinating and unusual, not a person
+whom one would care to know intimately.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The difference in her manner and expression that night attracted the
+attention of one of the teachers&mdash;the girl's face was so tense and
+white, her blue eyes showed such dark shadows beneath them.  It was
+owing to this teacher's advice that Polly was allowed to leave the
+study hall an hour earlier than usual and go to her own room and to bed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was not feeling particularly well.  Her head did ache and her
+conscience troubled her the least little bit, notwithstanding she had
+not the faintest intention of surrender.  With hot cheeks and cold
+hands she lay still for a long time until the noises of the other girls
+retiring had quieted down and the big house was silent.  Then Polly
+suddenly sat up in bed.  A moment later she had crawled out on the
+floor and lighted a candle by her writing desk.  The electric lights
+had been turned off for the night.  But even in the pitch darkness
+Polly would still have composed her letter.  For an idea had at last
+come to her.  And if only she could get just one person to accede to it
+her way would be plain.  The one person might be difficult.  Polly was
+perfectly aware of this, but then she had great faith in her own powers
+of persuasion.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap06"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VI
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+ESTHER'S ROOM
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Just above the small alcohol lamp the teakettle was beginning to sing.
+On a table near-by were teacups and saucers, with one plate of
+sandwiches covered over with a small napkin, and another of cookies.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Several times a tall girl glanced at the clock and then walked across
+the room to take the kettle off the stove, only to place it back again
+the next instant.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then at last she seated herself by an open piano.  There was very
+little furniture in the room except the piano, a small cot and the
+table.  Yet it had an atmosphere of home and comfort, such as some
+persons are able to give to a tent in a desert.  And standing in a row
+at the back of the same tea table were three candles in ten-cent-store
+glass candlesticks, waiting to be lighted.  The afternoon was a dismal
+one, with occasional flurries of snow; so that when the proper time
+came for the candle-lighting, the flames would not be ungrateful.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But in order to make the waiting seem less long the girl was evidently
+trying to distract her attention by practicing her music.  Several
+times she sang over the scales.  And then, dissatisfied with her own
+work, repeated them until finally her voice rose with unusual resonance
+and power.  Then, after another slight pause, she drifted almost
+unconsciously into the words of a song:
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"Burn, fire, burn!<BR>
+Flicker, flicker, flame!<BR>
+Whose hand above this blaze is lifted<BR>
+Shall be with magic touch engifted,<BR>
+To warm the hearts of lonely mortals<BR>
+Who stand without their open portals.<BR>
+The torch shall draw them to the fire<BR>
+Higher, higher<BR>
+By desire.<BR>
+Whoso shall stand by this hearthstone,<BR>
+Flame-fanned,<BR>
+Shall never, never stand alone;<BR>
+Whose house is dark and bare and cold,<BR>
+Whose house is cold,<BR>
+This is his own.<BR>
+Flicker, flicker, flicker, flame;<BR>
+Burn, fire burn!"<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had not heard the door open softly nor even noticed the figure that
+crept softly into the small room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But now a pair of gloved hands were clasped eagerly together and an
+enthusiastic voice said:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Esther Crippen, that is the loveliest song in all the world and you
+are the loveliest singer of it!  How glad I am to have arrived at just
+this moment!  Why, your little room makes me feel that it is a <I>real</I>
+refuge from all that is dark and bare and cold.  And you surely are
+with the 'magic touch engifted to warm the hearts of lonely mortals'
+with that beautiful voice of yours."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Polly O'Neill, putting one hand on each of Esther's cheeks, kissed
+her with unexpected ardor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It made Esther flush and tremble slightly as she rose to greet her
+long-desired guest.  Any compliment made Esther shy and one from Polly
+more than from another person.  For although each girl admired the
+other's talents and character, they had never understood each other
+especially well.  Esther always seemed to Polly far too sober and
+almost too unselfish and self-effacing, while Polly to the quieter girl
+had all the brilliance and unreliability of a will-o'-the-wisp.  Before
+coming to New York for the winter their intimacy had been due largely
+to their mutual devotion to Betty; but now, both lonely and both in a
+new environment, they had been greatly drawn together.  Polly's
+occasional visits had been one of Esther's few sources of pleasure
+outside her work.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How charming you are looking, Polly," Esther began, taking off her
+guest's dark coat and hat, and seeing her emerge in a crimson woolen
+dress, which made a bright spot of color in the shabby room.  Polly,
+you must remember, was only pretty on occasions; but this afternoon was
+certainly one of her good-looking days.  The cold had made her pale
+cheeks flame and given a softer glow to her eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am simply ravenous, Esther, and dying for your delicious tea," Polly
+next remarked, following her hostess to the tea table and taking her
+seat, while Esther poured out the boiling water.  "It is a kind of a
+homesick day and I have been wishing that we were going to have a
+meeting of our old Sunrise Hill Camp Fire circle.  What wouldn't you
+give for a glimpse of the Princess this afternoon?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Esther's lips twitched as she lighted her three candles.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Almost anything I possess," she returned.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you are going to see her pretty soon?  You are going back to
+Woodford for Christmas?"  Polly tried to hide her own nervousness in
+putting this simple question.  With her eyes shining over the edge of
+her cup she continued slowly drinking her tea, so that the rest of her
+face could not be seen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Esther was not paying her any special attention.  Quietly she shook
+her head.  "No, Polly, I am not going home.  I am so sorry, for I
+wanted to dreadfully.  But my music lessons are so expensive that
+father does not feel he can afford to let me come.  I haven't yet had
+the courage to write and break the news to the Princess.  She is fond
+of me, don't you think so, Polly?  She will be sorry that I can't be
+with her for the holidays?  Of course I know she does not care for me
+as she does for you.  I shall never expect that.  But it does mean so
+much to me to feel sure of her affection."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly frowned in a slightly puzzled fashion.  Esther's adoration even
+of her beloved Betty seemed a little unnatural.  Why should one girl
+care so much about the attitude of another one?  She loved Betty
+herself, of course, and Betty loved her.  Yet she doubted very much if
+either one worried over the emotions of the other.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, yes, Esther," Polly returned a trifle impatiently.  "Of course
+Betty is devoted to you.  Why shouldn't she be?  Really, I do think you
+would let her almost trample upon you if she liked.  Only Betty never
+would like to hurt any one, thank heaven!  But I am glad to hear you
+are not going home for the Christmas holidays, because I am not going
+either."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was nothing so remarkable in this statement that it should make
+Polly turn white and then red again.  But fortunately the three Camp
+Fire candles, "Work, Health and Love," were now flickering so that the
+elder girl could not get a clear vision of the other's face.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But instead of appearing pleased over this news Esther seemed
+disappointed.  "I am so sorry, for Betty's sake," she returned.  "She
+wouldn't mind my not being with her so much if she only might have you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly shrugged her thin shoulders in a fashion she had when vexed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"O Esther, I think you might have been polite enough to say that you
+would be glad to have me in town if you were to be here&mdash;particularly
+when I came to ask you if I might spend the holidays with you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Spend the holidays with me?" Esther repeated in rather a stupid
+fashion.  Naturally she was puzzled as to just why a girl in Polly's
+position should elect to spend her Christmas vacation in a cheap New
+York boarding house with another girl for whom she had no special
+sentiment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why in the world do you want to remain in the city with me?" she asked
+again, too honest to pretend that pleasure was her first sentiment
+until she got a more definite understanding of the situation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Polly was now making no effort to devote her attention either to
+eating or drinking.  Instead she had rested both elbows on the table
+and was looking at her companion with the half-pleading,
+half-commanding expression that both Mollie and Betty knew so well.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Promise not to say anything until I have finished?" she began
+coaxingly.  "For you see it is to explain why I want to stay with you
+that made me write to ask you to make this engagement with me for this
+afternoon."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap07"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VII
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE THREAT
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"Then you refuse to help me or to keep my secret?" Polly O'Neill
+protested indignantly.  "Really, Esther, I never knew any one with such
+a gift for considering herself her sister's keeper.  We belong to the
+same Camp Fire Club.  And if that means anything I thought it was
+loyalty and service toward one another.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"'As fagots are brought from the forest<BR>
+<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Firmly held by the sinews which bind them,</SPAN><BR>
+So cleave to these others, your sisters,<BR>
+<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 1em">Wherever, whenever you find them.'"</SPAN><BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Esther had walked across the room and had her back turned during this
+recitation.  But now she moved around, facing her visitor until it was
+Polly's eyes that dropped before her own.  The older girl had always
+the dignity that comes from truth and sincerity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't be absurd, Polly," she said, speaking quietly, but with no lack
+of decision.  "You know as well as I do that loyalty has nothing to do
+with aiding one another to do what one does not believe to be right.  I
+don't want to preach.  Yet don't you think perhaps <I>you</I> are breaking a
+part of our Camp Fire law?  'Be Trustworthy.  This law teaches us not
+to undertake enterprises rashly.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, please hush, Esther,"  Polly insisted.  "There is no use in our
+quarreling, and we are sure to if you go on preaching like that.  I
+told you what I have made up my mind to do.  If you don't wish to help
+me, that of course is your affair.  All I have the right to demand is,
+that what I told you in the strictest confidence you repeat to no one
+else."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She picked up her coat and began slowly buttoning it, waiting for
+Esther's reply, which did not come at once.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't know whether I can promise you even that," the older girl
+answered finally.  Her face was white and she moved her hands in the
+old nervous fashion that Betty had almost broken her of.  "I don't
+suppose you can understand, Polly, what an almost dangerous thing you
+are about to undertake.  And without your mother knowing it!  O Polly,
+please don't!  Why, if anything should happen to you what would she say
+to me or Molly and Betty, if knowing your intention I did not warn
+them?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly was like a hot flame in her anger.  In her life Esther scarcely
+remembered ever having seen any one in such intense yet quiet passion.
+All the blue seemed to have gone out of her visitor's eyes until they
+were almost black.  Her lips were drawn and although she tried to
+control her voice, it quivered like a too-tightly-drawn violin string.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Esther," she said, "I shall not leave this room until I have your
+solemn promise.  Perhaps you don't know anything about the standards of
+conduct between people of birth and breeding.  You were brought up in
+an orphan asylum and had no mother.  Whether you disapprove of me or
+not makes no difference.  I am not objecting to your disapproval.  I
+can perfectly understand that.  But what I absolutely will not endure
+is for you to tell my secret because it happens to strike your
+conscience that that is the right thing to do.  My secret belongs to me
+as absolutely as my clothes or any of my other possessions do.  And
+because you chance not to approve of it or of them is no reason why you
+should steal them from me and give them away to other people."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Again Esther was silent and her eyes filled with tears.  What was the
+use of arguing with Polly when she was in this mood?  Yet there were so
+many things that she could honestly say.  And one of them, that if she
+had had the good fortune to have a mother, she at least would not have
+tried to deceive her as Polly was doing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However Esther was not sure that the latter part of her companion's
+argument was not true.  Had she the right to betray Polly's confidence,
+even though she might consider it for her good?  For Polly had begun
+her revelation by insisting that what she told be kept in the strictest
+secrecy, and she had listened with that understanding.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Unfortunately Esther's failure to reply did not strike her visitor as
+indicating a change in her point of view.  Polly flung herself angrily
+down into a chair, as though intent upon beginning a siege.  She was
+trying in a measure to control her temper, realizing how ashamed she
+usually felt after the flare of it was past.  Still she did honorably
+consider that Esther's attitude in the present situation was the wrong
+one.  Perhaps she was being disobedient, wilful, wicked even.  Yet she
+had made up her mind to take the consequences (at least the
+consequences that she was now able to foresee).  And she had no idea of
+being frustrated in her purpose by an outside person, whose assistance
+she had been foolish enough to ask.  No, some way must be devised that
+would force Esther into silence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly glanced desperately about the small room.  There was a big
+photograph of the Princess, smiling at her from the wall, the Princess
+at her loveliest, with her exquisitely refined features, her delicate,
+high-bred air.  She turned away from it rather quickly to look again at
+her companion.  Goodness, what a contrast there still was between the
+two girls!  They had believed that Esther was improving a little in her
+appearance.  Yet just now worry and uncertainty made her seem plainer
+even than usual.  And she had on an ugly but thoroughly useful
+chocolate-colored dress that Betty would have made her throw into the
+fire at once.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Betty, it was always Betty with Esther Crippen!"  If only she could
+reach Esther in some way through their friend.  This was an ugly
+thought of Polly's.  She was ashamed of it and yet felt herself driven
+to using almost any means toward attaining her end.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Look here, Esther Crippen," she began, breaking the silence first.  "I
+wonder if it has ever occurred to you that you may some day have a
+secret in your life (or you may have one already for all that I know),
+which you want more than anything to keep hidden from people.  Say you
+particularly wished Betty never to find it out.  Well, suppose I
+discovered your secret, suppose I knew about it right now, would you
+want me to tell Betty everything that I had found out just because I
+decided that it would be the right thing to do?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly happened to be staring into her own lap as she delivered this
+speech, feeling none too proud of it and having to trust to her
+imagination as she went along.  Now, however, she glanced up into the
+face of the other girl, who was standing near her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then with an exclamation of regret, almost of fear, Polly jumped to her
+feet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good heavens!  Esther, what is the matter with you?  Are you ill, do
+you feel like you were going to faint?  If you are sick why on earth
+haven't you told me before?  We could talk over this business of mine
+any time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Polly, forgetting her anger, put her arm reassuringly about her
+former friend, fairly leading her to a chair.  Esther continued staring
+at her, with a deathly white face, evidently trying to speak, but not
+able.  Then suddenly the girl collapsed and dropping her head on her
+arm began to cry.  She was ordinarily self-restrained; and being
+brought up in an orphan asylum among people who took no interest in her
+emotions she had learned unusual self-control.  Probably only three or
+four persons had ever seen her give way like this before in her life.
+So she did not cry easily, but in a kind of shaken, broken fashion that
+brought a remorseful Polly on the floor at her feet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What on earth have I said that has hurt you so, Esther?" she begged.
+"I know I am a wretched little beast who does or say 'most anything
+sometimes in order to get my own way.  But of course I don't know any
+secret of yours and if I did I should never tell.  I only like to
+threaten things because I'm cross.  You see I don't believe in telling
+secrets."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This was a Polly-like way of apologizing and yet driving in her own
+claim at the same time.  If only at this moment Esther had had the
+Princess' understanding of Polly O'Neill's character, most certainly
+she would have laughed.  But Esther could not pull herself together so
+quickly.  A few moments later, however, she put her hands on Polly's
+shoulders and in the face of all that had just happened, kissed her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, Polly," she said, "I know that if ever you should make up your
+mind that there was something, which I thought best should never be
+known, you would never tell it, even if I betray your secret now.
+Perhaps we don't agree about some things.  But you could never be
+revengeful.  I am sure I don't know what I ought to do.  Of course you
+have the right to choose for yourself.  I&mdash;I wish you wouldn't do what
+you have decided upon.  But if I don't tell and yet don't let you stay
+here with me, what on earth would you do about this theatrical scheme?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, go to some other boarding house for two weeks," Polly replied
+calmly.  "I am sure that is exactly what you are doing, boarding in New
+York and going on with your work.  Of course your work happens to be
+studying music at present, but you have already sung at two church
+concerts and&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This time Esther did laugh.  "Well, church concerts are hardly to be
+compared with the stage, Polly.  And please look in your mirror and
+remember that I am I and you are you.  But of course you realize that
+if you will go on with this whim of yours, I am not going to let you
+live in any place by yourself.  You would be sure to get ill or
+something dreadful might happen.  No, I shall beg you every minute till
+the time comes, not to do what you must know would worry your mother.
+But if you still persist, why, you are coming right here to stay with
+me and I shall be your shadow every moment until you go back to school."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly jumped up hastily.  "What an impolite suggestion for a hostess!"
+she murmured, pretending that the seriousness of the situation was now
+entirely past.  "Go back to school?  Dear me, that is what I must do
+this very minute!  Good-bye."  And kissing Esther hastily on the hair,
+Polly seized her hat and fled out the door.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yet halfway down the long stairs the girl hesitated and stopped for an
+instant as if intending to return.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Perhaps I ought to give up and be good for once," she whispered to
+herself.  "It won't be fair, and mother and Mollie and Betty may be
+angry with Esther for not telling.  Even if I have the right to get
+into trouble myself, I haven't the right to drag in other people.  But,
+oh dear! what fun it will be!  And with Esther for my duenna, things
+are sure to turn out all right."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the lowest steps Polly passed a small boy hobbling up toward
+Esther's room.  He was evidently a boy from the streets, as he was
+shabbily dressed and carried half a dozen papers under his arm.  But
+there was a hungry, eager look in his face that Polly remembered having
+seen sometimes in Esther's in those early days of her first coming to
+Mrs. Ashton's home.  So straightway she guessed that the boy was some
+child, whom Esther had discovered, with a talent and love for music and
+that she was giving him lessons in her leisure moments.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap08"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER VIII
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+PREPARATIONS FOR THE HOLIDAYS
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"But if you won't come, Betty dear, I shan't wish to give the party,"
+Meg Everett announced in a disappointed fashion.  "With Polly and
+Esther not to be here, there are so few of our old Camp Fire circle
+anyhow.  And you see I only wanted to have our club and a few of John's
+young men friends.  The idea is that we girls are to cook the entire
+dinner and then just talk or dance or play games afterwards.  It is not
+to be anything like a <I>real</I> party."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty smiled.  She and Meg and Mollie O'Neill were taking a winter
+tramp through the woods in the direction of the Sunrise Cabin, which
+had been closed for the past six months.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I should dearly love to come, Meg," Betty confessed.  "There is no use
+in my pretending that I shouldn't feel desperately lonely with the
+thought of your having such a good time without me.  But mother&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mollie gave her arm an affectionate squeeze.  "There, Betty Ashton,
+that is just exactly what I knew you would say.  So I talked the whole
+matter over with your mother myself first.  And she declares that there
+isn't any reason why you should not accept Meg's invitation.  She is
+quite sure that your father would never have wished you not to be as
+happy as possible.  You have had trouble enough, goodness knows!   And
+then the extra disappointment of Polly's and Esther's remaining in New
+York!  I am glad enough Meg is going to give a party, and I hope there
+will be dozens of delightful things that Polly O'Neill will miss.  What
+on earth do you suppose has possessed her to want to stay on with
+Esther?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Mollie sighed.  The three months without her sister may have passed
+by in greater peacefulness than with her, but then Polly always added a
+zest and flavor to existence.  And this was the longest time that the
+two girls had ever been separated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I don't know.  She must have had some very good reason," Betty
+returned.  "Polly wrote me that she had, and now we must not believe
+that she did not love us as much as ever.  She wasn't able to explain
+the particulars just at present; but if we only trust her and forgive
+her some day we will understand."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mollie frowned.  With a much quieter and more amiable temperament than
+her twin, yet nearly eighteen years of intimate living with her had
+given her a pretty clear comprehension of her sister's character.
+Privately Mollie was puzzled over Polly's behavior and a good deal
+worried.  It was not like Polly to have conceived so sudden a devotion
+to Esther as to be unwilling to leave her for two weeks.  And her claim
+that she might not be particularly happy at home because of her
+stepbrother's presence was not convincing.  For Betty Ashton had
+invited Polly to be her guest.  No, Polly certainly had some special
+design in staying on in New York.  Of this Mollie was completely
+convinced.  But what the purpose was, neither from her own imaginings
+nor from any hint dropped by her sister's letters, could she get the
+slightest clue.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The three girls had come to a narrow path through the woods, and for a
+little while were compelled to walk in single file.  For a few moments
+they were silent, each one busy with her own thoughts, Mollie happening
+to be in the middle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I believe I'll ask Billy what he thinks," she remarked suddenly aloud.
+And then she bit her lips, blushing until the very tips of her ears
+grew warm.  For Meg and Betty were both laughing in the most ridiculous
+way.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is it as bad as that, Mollie?" Meg teased.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ask Billy what he thinks on one or all subjects, dear?" Betty queried.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To both of which questions Mollie naturally deigned no reply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She and Billy Webster were extremely good friends.  Indeed, they seemed
+always to have been since the day of their first meeting, when she had
+bound up his injured head.  And this winter, with Polly away and Betty
+so busy and Meg wrapped up in keeping house and Sylvia spending all her
+spare hours in studying with Dr. Barton when not at school, she had
+enjoyed the walks and talks with the young man perhaps more than usual.
+But it was not because of their intimacy that she had considered
+putting this problem of Polly's failure to return home before him.  Her
+reason was that in their long conversations about her sister, Billy had
+always seemed not only to be interested in Polly but able to understand
+her disposition peculiarly well.  So it was stupid for her two friends
+to have taken her foolish exclamation as meaning anything personal.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next ten minutes Betty and Meg had rather a difficult time in
+making peace; for Mollie had not a strong sense of humor&mdash;a fact which
+both girls should have remembered.  But because she was always so
+gentle and kind herself, no one of her friends could bear the idea of
+hurting her feelings under any circumstances.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However while Betty was in the midst of apologizing, Billy Webster
+himself came swinging along the same path from the opposite direction.
+He had his gun over his shoulder and half a dozen birds in his hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who is it taking my name in vain?" he demanded of Betty.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Mollie had a dreadful moment of fearing that Betty might betray
+what they had been talking about.  However, as nothing of the kind
+happened, ten minutes later Meg and Betty were walking ahead deep in
+conversation about the party, while Mollie and Billy strolled after
+them only a few feet behind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The young man had been on his way into Woodford to divide the product
+of his day's hunting between Mrs. Ashton and Mrs. O'Neill.  Now,
+hearing that the girls were on a pilgrimage to Sunrise Cabin, he had
+been invited to accompany them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, it won't be like a meeting of our Camp Fire Club, Meg," Betty
+argued thoughtfully, after having satisfied herself by a glance over
+her shoulder that Mollie and Billy were too absorbed in each other to
+take any notice of them.  "I have been coming to our Camp Fire Club
+meetings all winter and because I am in mourning made no difference.
+But with John inviting his friends to your entertainment, why, I can't
+make up my mind yet, dear, whether I have the courage to come."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty spoke bravely, but Meg slipped her arm across her friend's
+shoulder, holding her fast.  The two girls were closer friends now that
+Polly and Esther were both away and Meg understood that sometimes Betty
+did not feel so cheerful as she pretended.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"John won't ask more than just one other fellow to keep him company, if
+we can have you with us in no other way," Meg conceded.  "You see,
+Betty, John is only to be at home for a few days.  As this is his
+senior year at college he wants to so some special work during the
+holidays.  But he likes you so much better than any of the other girls
+in Woodford, that I am quite sure&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Betty had stuffed her fingers in her ears and was refusing to
+listen.  "It is bad enough to have you girls spoil me because I am in
+trouble, but when it comes to telling fibs I won't hear you.  Of course
+you know, Meg Everett, that I am not going to let you spoil everybody's
+pleasure on my account," she answered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Feeling the victory already won, Meg laughed.  "John is only to invite
+Billy Webster and Frank Wharton and Ralph Bowles and three or four of
+his Boy Scout camp.  By the way, Betty, one of the things I
+particularly wished to talk to you about is this: Shall we ask Anthony
+Graham?  He seems rather uncouth and the other fellows won't have
+anything to do with him.  But he is Nan's brother and she is so
+splendid I should hate to hurt her feelings."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty shook her head.  "Anthony isn't the kind of person to invite
+though, Meg," she replied without a moment's hesitation.  "Of course he
+is trying to pull up and keep straight and I feel that we should do all
+we can to help him.  But inviting him to our parties and treating him
+as if he were exactly our equal!"  Betty's chin went up in the air and
+her face betrayed such a delicate, high-bred disdain that apparently
+Anthony's fate was immediately settled.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The little party had now reached the familiar pine woods and there,
+only a few yards ahead, stood their deserted cabin.  The totem pole
+raised its gaunt head to greet them, still decorated with the history
+of their year in the woods together.  But the doors and windows of the
+cabin were barred with heavy planks.  Nowhere was there a sign of life.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let's go back home at once, please, now that we have seen that
+everything is all right," Mollie begged a moment later.  "It always
+gives me the blues dreadfully to see Sunrise Cabin closed up and to
+know that perhaps no one of us shall ever live there again.  I never
+dreamed when we said good-bye to it last spring that we would not come
+out here often for club meetings and parties."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Parties?" Meg repeated.  Then she continued standing perfectly still
+and silent for several moments, although the others were moving about
+laughing and talking.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Parties!" she exclaimed again, speaking in such a loud tone that her
+companions turned to stare at her in surprise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Betty Ashton, Mollie O'Neill and Billy Webster, if you and some of the
+others will help us, why can't we have our dinner party here at the
+cabin?  We are not planning to have it until New Year, so there will be
+plenty of time to make arrangements."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However, Meg could get no further with her suggestion, for Betty and
+Mollie had both flung their arms about her and Betty exclaimed:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It will almost make me have a happy holiday time, Meg dearest, and I
+can never bear to refuse your invitation if we are to be together at
+Sunrise Cabin once again."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap09"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER IX
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE CASTLE OF LIFE
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+It seemed to Esther Crippen that she had been sitting in the wings of
+the theater every evening for half her lifetime, although it had been
+only a week since Polly's initial appearance as the Fairy of the Woods
+in the dramatization of the ancient legend "The Castle of Life."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At first she had spent every moment after Polly's departure from the
+dressing room in peering out from some inconspicuous corner at whatever
+action was taking place upon the stage.  Now, however, the play and
+even the actors themselves had become a comparatively old story.  Her
+interest centered itself chiefly in Polly&mdash;in Polly and the odd human
+characters that she saw everywhere about her.  Indeed, except for her
+nervousness and care of her friend, this week had been almost as
+absorbing to Esther Crippen as to the other girl.  For after the first
+two nights she had lost her fear that Polly might make an absolute
+failure of her part, and also the impression that either of them might
+be insulted or unkindly treated by the men and women about them.
+People had been rough perhaps, but thoroughly business-like.  And if
+Polly were told to hurry, or to move on, or corrected for some mistake
+in her work, it was all done in so impersonal a fashion that both girls
+had learned valuable lessons from the experience.  Esther had been
+amazed at the spirit in which Polly had accepted the discipline and
+hard work.  Perhaps, after all, she had been making a mountain out of a
+mole hill and this disobedience on Polly's part, wrong though it
+certainly was, might not result in anything so disastrous as she had at
+first feared.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And there was no doubt that Polly was achieving a real success, one
+that surprised her and every one else.  Her part was only a small one,
+with but few words to speak; otherwise she could never have managed it
+with no previous experience and so little time for rehearsing.
+Nevertheless she had made one of those sudden yet conspicuous triumphs
+that are so frequent in stage life.  Sometimes it may happen with a
+girl playing the part of a maid, sometimes with a man who has not half
+a dozen sentences to recite.  It is the quality in the acting that
+counts.  And the manager in choosing Polly for the special rôle he had
+desired had chosen wisely.  For it was not so much the girl's method of
+playing that had won sympathy and applause, as her manner and
+appearance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And curiously enough, though Polly was frightened the first night of
+the performance, she was not so much so as on that evening of the Camp
+Fire play the previous year, before an audience of friends.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly felt herself at the heart of her first great adventure.  The play
+itself, the other actors and actresses, the strangeness of her
+surroundings, all occupied her to the forgetting of her own
+individuality.  It seemed as though she were only living out a kind of
+dream.  Nothing was real, nothing was actual about her.  The audience
+did not terrify her, nor the lights, nor the darkness, nor the queer
+smell of dust and paint and artificiality, that is a necessary part of
+the background of stage life.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Perhaps the girl had found her element.  For there is for each one of
+us a place in this world, some niche into which one really fits.  And
+though this place may seem crowded, or ugly, or undesirable to other
+people, if it should be our own, it holds a feeling of comfort and of
+possession that no other spot can.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Polly had not been thinking of niches or elements or anything of
+the kind either tonight or during the week past.  All of her being was
+too deeply absorbed in the interest of the play and the actors and her
+own little part.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the present moment she was in hiding behind a piece of scenery,
+eagerly awaiting the cue for her own entrance; yet she was as keenly
+intent upon each detail of the acting taking place upon the stage as if
+tonight it were a first experience.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The players happened to be the two persons who had been kindest and
+most helpful to her in the company.  And one of them one was the
+brown-eyed girl whose lead she had followed on the day of her own
+engagement.  Polly had been glad to make the discovery later that this
+same girl had been engaged to play the part of Grazioso's grandmother
+in "The Castle of Life."  The other actor was the star, a young man of
+about twenty-six or seven, who was impersonating Grazioso, the hero of
+the fairy story.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The stage was in semi-darkness, while the grandmother related to the
+boy the tale of her first meeting with the fairies.  A small, shabby
+room revealed a low fire burning in the grate.  In an armchair sat the
+old woman, while her grandson lay on the floor at her feet with his
+head resting upon his hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There are two fairies," said the grandmother, "two great fairies&mdash;the
+Fairy of the Water and the Fairy of the Woods.  Ten years ago I had
+gone out at daybreak to catch the crabs asleep in the sand, when I saw
+a halcyon flying gently towards the shore.  The halcyon is a sacred
+bird, so I never stirred for fear I should scare it away.  And at the
+same time from a cleft in the mountain I saw a beautiful green adder
+appear and come gliding along the sands toward the bird.  When they
+were near each other the adder twined itself around the neck of the
+halcyon as if it were embracing it tenderly.  Then I saw a great black
+cat, who could be nothing else than a magician, hiding itself behind a
+rock close to me.  And scarcely had the halcyon and adder embraced than
+the cat sprang on the innocent pair.  This was my time to act.  I
+seized him in spite of his struggles and with the knife I used for
+opening oysters I cut off the monster's head, paws and tail.  And as
+soon as I had thrown the creature's body into the sea, before me stood
+two beautiful ladies, one with a crown of white feathers and the other
+with a scarf made of snake's skins.  They were, as I have told you, the
+Fairy of the Water and the Fairy of the Woods."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With these words, Polly moved a few steps nearer the place set for her
+entrance.  On the opposite side she could see the other girl who
+impersonated the water fairy, also ready to make her entrance.  Tonight
+was New Year's eve and the house was unusually crowded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the grandmother was continuing her speech.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Enchanted by a wicked Jinn, they were obliged to remain bird and snake
+until some hand should restore them to liberty.  To me they owed
+freedom and power.  'Ask what thou wilt,' they said, 'and thy wishes
+shall be fulfilled."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I thought how I was old and had too hard a life to wish for it over
+again.  But the day would come when nothing would be too good for thee,
+my child."  The old woman leaned over, stroking her grandson's dark
+hair.  "The Fairy of the Woods gave me a scale from the snake's skin
+and the Fairy of the Water a small white feather from her crown.  They
+are hidden in a box under some rags.  Open the box and thou wilt find
+the scale and the feather."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The boy then crossed the stage and a moment later handed the box to the
+old woman, who appeared too ill to leave her chair.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After bending over and listening to her instructions, he stepped
+forward nearer the footlights.  There in the center of the room was a
+bowl of water in which he placed the feather and the scale.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wish for thyself anything thou desirest, fortune, greatness, wit,
+power," murmurs the old woman.  "But embrace me first, as I feel that I
+am dying."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Grazioso did not approach either to embrace or ask the old woman's
+blessing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wish my grandmother to live forever!" he cried.  "Appear, Fairy of
+the Woods.  Appear, Fairy of the Water!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And now in perfect silence Polly O'Neill made her entrance.  She moved
+very slowly forward, so slim and young and tall, with such big,
+dark-blue eyes, and such slender, elfish grace that she did not look
+like a real flesh-and-blood girl.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The audience stirred, and a little breath of appreciation moved through
+it, which Polly was almost learning to expect.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She wore her own black hair unbound and hanging loose below her
+shoulders.  It was made blacker by the wreath of leaves that encircled
+her head.  She was dressed in an olive-green gown of some soft,
+clinging material and a scarf of snake's skin was fastened over her
+shoulder.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Fairy of the Water followed Polly.  Her gown was white with a blue
+scarf, and she was small and blonde.  She was a pretty girl, but
+somehow there was no suggestion of the fairy about her.  One could see
+the same type of girl any time, standing behind a counter in a shop, or
+dancing at a party of young people.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly's grace and her ardent, unconventional temperament made it easy
+to understand why the attention should be focused upon her during this
+single scene.  Besides, she had one long speech to deliver.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This was the moment when the girl felt her only real nervousness.  For
+always there was the uncertainty as to whether her voice would be
+strong and full enough to be heard throughout the theater.  Tonight and
+for the first time she hesitated for a second.  Yet no one noticed it,
+except the actors near her and Esther, who had crept forth, for a
+closer view in spite of the stage regulations.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Have you forgotten your lines, child?" the leading man whispered so
+quietly that no one could overhear.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Polly only smiled, with a faint shake of her graceful head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Here we are, my child," she began the next instant, speaking in clear,
+girlish tones that showed nothing of indecision or embarrassment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We have heard what you said and your wish does you credit.  We can
+prolong your grandmother's life for some time.  But to make her live
+forever you must find The Castle of Life."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Madam," replied Grazioso, "I will start at once."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is four long days' journey from here," the Fairy of the Woods
+continued.  "If you can accomplish each of these four days' journey
+without turning out of your road and if, on arriving at the castle, you
+can answer the three questions that an invisible voice will ask you,
+you will receive there all that you desire.  For there the fountain of
+immortality will be found."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then slowly the great stage curtain descended.  And this was the end of
+Polly's part in the performance, though one more ordeal was to follow.
+And though she welcomed this, Polly also dreaded it more than anything
+else.  Always a curtain call came at the close of this scene, when she
+and the Fairy of the Water, each holding a hand of Grazioso's, must
+step forth to the footlights and for an instant face the audience,
+smiling their thanks for the applause.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Polly had never been able to summon a smile, for at this moment she
+had always become self-conscious.  The glamour and the excitement of
+the theater suddenly deserted her and she felt not like a fairy or
+anything fantastic, but only like Polly O'Neill, a very untrained and
+frightened girl who was deceiving her family and friends to have this
+first taste of stage life, and who might suffer almost any kind of
+consequences: imprisonment in some boarding school, Polly feared, where
+she might never again be allowed any liberty or an equal imprisonment
+in Woodford, with no mention of the theater made in her presence as
+long as she lived.  For Polly could not determine to what lengths her
+mother's anger and disapproval of her conduct might lead her.  And she
+did mean to make her confession and face the results as soon as her two
+weeks' engagement was over.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Therefore tonight she kept an even tighter clasp on Grazioso's hand
+than usual, her knees were shaking so absurdly.  And all the faces in
+the audience were swimming before her, as though they had no features
+but eyes.  Then suddenly the girl grew rigid with surprise, uncertainty
+and fear.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the second row just under the footlights she had discovered a face
+that was strangely familiar.  And yet could it be possible that this
+person of all others should be here in New York City and in the theater
+tonight, instead of in the village of Woodford?
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap10"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER X
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE RECOGNITION
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Esther was not waiting in the accustomed place where Polly had
+previously found her when she came off the stage.  On her way to the
+dressing room she shivered a little, missing the coat that her friend
+was in the habit of wrapping about her shoulders.  The night was
+extremely cold and the back of a theater is nearly always breezy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly hurried faster than usual to her room&mdash;a small dark one at the
+end of a passage-way.  But even here there was no sign of Esther.  What
+could have become of her?  She was not apt to be talking with any of
+the members of the company; for both girls had decided that it was
+wiser to make themselves as inconspicuous as possible.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Well, she must do her best to get out of her fairy costume and back
+into sensible garments by her own efforts.  Esther would be coming
+along in a few moments.  She could not stand idle with her teeth fairly
+chattering and those ridiculous little chills chasing themselves all
+over her.  Wouldn't it be too absurd to take cold at this particular
+time and so make a failure of her adventure?  For she would thus heap
+all the family disapproval and punishment upon her own head and incur
+the righteous indignation of everybody in the company by having to
+resign her part.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Would any one ever have imagined that a garment could be so difficult
+to unfasten as this one she was now incased in?  For of course the
+stiffness and shakiness of Polly's fingers came from the zero
+temperature in her dressing room and not in the least from the
+momentary fright she had received from her supposed recognition of a
+face in the audience.  Undoubtedly she had been mistaken.  Yet why
+should she have chosen to believe that she saw about the most unlikely
+person of her acquaintance?  A guilty conscience should have conjured
+up some ghost who had more right to be present.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly finally did succeed in getting into her street clothes without
+assistance; and though five, ten minutes passed, Esther did not appear
+in the dressing room.  Nor was she anywhere in the hall, since Polly
+had several times thrust her head out the door to look for her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly was a little uneasy, though assuredly nothing serious could have
+happened to Esther.  Esther had been very good to her during these past
+days, so staunch and loyal, never reproaching her or arguing once she
+had become convinced that Polly's mind was made up, and taking such
+wonderful care of her, guarding her so closely!  If ever there came a
+time when her mother, or Mollie, or Betty should attempt to blame
+Esther for her part in this escapade, Polly had determined that they
+should understand the situation in its true light.  And some day she
+might be able to return Esther's allegiance and devotion.  For always
+the opportunity to serve a friend will come if one is sufficiently on
+the lookout for it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The moment that she left her dressing room Polly ran directly into
+Esther, who was hurrying toward her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Polly dear," she said, "I hope you haven't been worried, though I
+have been uneasy enough about you.  Do come back into your room for a
+moment.  There is something I want to tell you that no one else must
+hear."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Esther looked so excited and nervous that Polly slipped an arm
+comfortingly about her.  "Don't mind if anybody has said anything rude
+or been horrid, please," she whispered.  "You know we promised each
+other not to take the disagreeable things seriously."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh no, it is nothing like that.  It is about you," the older girl
+explained.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly smiled.  "The disagreeable things usually are about me."  She
+looked so absurdly young and wilful and charming that Esther felt
+herself suddenly willing to champion her cause against any opposition.
+Of course Polly had done wrong, but the mistake had been made and to
+frustrate her ambition now could do no possible good.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't think you understand, Polly; you can't of course.  But Billy
+Webster was in the audience just now and recognized you.  He says that
+Mollie was afraid there was something the matter and&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Billy Webster's opinions are not of the least interest to me.  Do
+let's hurry home, Esther.  It is almost ten o'clock and though we can
+take the street car straight to your door, we have never been out this
+late before."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But Billy says he <I>must</I> see you.  He is waiting outside.  He says he
+means to tell your mother and Mollie what you are doing unless you
+promise to return home tomorrow.  He says that if you won't promise he
+may telegraph them tonight, so your mother can come and get you
+tomorrow.  I think you had better see him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Suddenly Polly flung her arms about her friend's neck and began crying
+like a disappointed child.  One never could count on Polly's doing what
+might be expected of her.  She had had the boldness of defy opposition
+and to act successfully for a week on the professional stage; yet now
+when she most needed her nerve she was breaking down completely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I always have hated that Billy Webster," she sobbed, "from the first
+moment I saw him.  What possible reason or right can he have to come
+spying on me in this fashion?  If he tells mother what I am doing now
+and does not give me a chance to confess, she will never forgive me.
+Neither will Mollie nor Betty nor any of the people I care about.  Rose
+and Miss McMurtry will never speak to me.  I shall be turned out of our
+Camp Fire Club.  Of course I know I deserve it.  But that Billy Webster
+should be the person to bring about my punishment is too much!
+Besides, I can't give up my part now.  Surely, Esther, you can see
+that.  Acting a week longer won't hurt me any more and&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think we had better see Mr. Webster, anyhow, dear," Esther insisted
+quietly.  "Perhaps we can persuade him not to tell, or else to give you
+the first opportunity."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hastily Polly dried her eyes.  She looked very white and frail as they
+went out of the room together.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In a secluded corner not far from the stage door they found Billy
+Webster waiting for them.  His face was pale under his country tan.
+His blue eyes, that sometimes were charmingly humorous, showed no sign
+of humor now.  If ever there was so youthful a figure of a stern and
+upright judge, he might well have stood for the model.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly struggled bravely to maintain her dignity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What is your decision, Miss O'Neill?" he inquired, without wasting any
+time by an enforced greeting.  "I presume Miss Crippen has told you
+what I have made up my mind to do."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Amiability was one of Esther's dominant traits of character; yet she
+would have liked to shake Billy Webster until his teeth chattered or
+suppress him in almost any way.  After all, what right had he to take
+this lofty tone with Polly?  He was not a member of her family, not
+even her friend.  Just because he had known all of them in their Camp
+Fire days in the woods and was devoted to Mrs. Wharton and to Mollie
+was not a sufficient excuse.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Therefore Polly's unexpected meekness of manner and tone was the more
+surprising&mdash;and dangerous.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How did you happen to come to New York and to the theater, Billy?" she
+queried, ignoring his use of the "Miss."  Frequently in times past they
+had called each other by their first names, when good feeling happened
+to be existing between them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Instantly Billy looked a little more on the defensive.  "I&mdash;I had to
+come to New York on business," he explained sullenly.  "And Mollie had
+been telling me that she was kind of uneasy about you and that she felt
+there must be some reason you wouldn't give why you did not wish to
+come home for the holidays."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So you undertook to play detective and find out?" Polly announced in
+the cool, even tones that made Billy hot with anger and a sense of
+injustice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was perfectly sure that he was right in his attitude toward her.
+She had been disobedient and audacious beyond his wildest conception,
+even of her.  And yet she had a skilful fashion of making the other
+fellow appear in the wrong.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I told Mollie that I would call on you and Esther," he returned,
+relapsing into his old-time familiarity.  "You see, I told her that I
+was sure things were quite all right, but I wanted to convince her too.
+I didn't think you would mind seeing me.  I thought you might even be
+glad to hear about your Woodford friends.  So as Mollie gave me your
+address, I went out to your house at about eight o'clock.  The maid
+told me that you had gone to the theater, told me which one.  Of course
+I just supposed that you had gone to see a show.  And that was pretty
+bad for two young girls!  But when I got here and the curtain went up
+and you came out!&mdash;why, Polly, I just couldn't believe it at first, and
+then I got to thinking of how your mother and Mollie would feel and
+what might happen!"  And Billy's voice shook in a very human and
+attractive fashion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Instantly Polly's hand was laid coaxingly on the young man's coat
+sleeve.  "But, Billy, seeing as now I have been and gone and done it
+already, why, think of me in any way that you please.  Only don't tell
+on me for another week.  The play is to last only through the holidays.
+And I promise on my word of honor to come home as soon as it is over
+and to tell mother every single thing."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Word of honor?" Billy repeated slightingly.  And of course, though
+Polly deserved her punishment his inflection was both rude and cruel.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Up to this moment the little party of three persons had been entirely
+uninterrupted.  Now Esther heard some one coming quickly toward them.
+And turning instantly she understood the impression that this scene
+might make.  The man was the leading actor of the company, Richard
+Hunt, who in a quiet way had shown an interest and an attitude of
+protection toward Polly.  Now observing a strange young man, and
+Polly's evident agitation, it was but natural that he should suppose
+that some one was trying to annoy her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Esther flung herself into the breach.  Not for anything must a scene be
+permitted to take place!  And she could guess at Billy Webster's
+scornful disregard of a man who was an actor.  Billy was a country
+fellow with little experience of life, and broad-mindedness was not a
+conspicuous trait of his character.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Esther never knew just exactly how she managed it, but in another
+moment she had confided the entire story of Polly's audacity to Mr.
+Hunt, Billy Webster's place in it, and his present intention of
+bringing retribution upon them.  She knew there was but little time for
+her story; for Mr. Hunt might be compelled to leave them on receiving
+his curtain call at any moment.  In a very surprising and good-humored
+fashion however he seemed to understand the situation at once.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I had an idea that Miss O'Neill was new to this business," he said;
+"or you would both have realized that it is not wise for a girl so
+young as she is to come to the theater without her mother or some much
+older woman to look after her.  But I believe I can appreciate
+everybody's point of view in this matter.  So why wouldn't it be well
+to have Miss O'Neill telegraph her mother herself and ask that she come
+down to New York tomorrow.  She could say there was nothing serious, so
+as not to frighten her.  And then of course they could talk things over
+together and decide what was best without any interference."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But before any answer could follow his suggestion a bell sounded and
+the older man was obliged to hurry away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Esther breathed a sigh of relief.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Dear me, why had not one of us thought of this way out?" she asked.
+"Surely, Billy, you can't object to allowing Mrs. Wharton to be the
+judge in this matter?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Billy nodded.  "Of course that is the best plan."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And you, Polly?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly had begun to cry again.  "I want to see my mother right this
+minute," she confessed.  And then, slipping out of the stage door, she
+left Esther and Billy to follow immediately after her and in silence to
+escort her safely home.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap11"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XI
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+SUNRISE CABIN AGAIN
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+It was New Year's night.  Sunrise Cabin was no longer an empty and
+deserted place, but golden lights shone through the windows, making a
+circle of brightness outside the door.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+From the inside came the sound of voices and laughter and music and the
+clatter of dishes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Slowly a figure approached the door.  It was after seven o'clock and a
+sharply cold evening with a heavy snow on the ground, so there could be
+small comfort in loitering.  Yet when the figure reached its evident
+destination, instead of knocking or making an effort to enter, it
+hesitated, stopped, turned and walked away for a few steps and then
+came back again.  The second time, however, summoning a sudden courage,
+the arm shot forth, and there was a single rap on the door.  The rap
+was so imperative that in spite of the rival noises inside, the door
+opened quickly.  Then the newcomer entered and for another moment stood
+hesitating in even greater bewilderment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The great room seemed to be twinkling with a hundred bayberry candles,
+sending forth a delicious woodland fragrance.  The walls were covered
+with pine branches and the big fireplace was piled as high with burning
+fagots and pine cones as safety permitted.  A long table standing in
+the center of the room was beautifully and yet oddly decorated, and
+upon it dinner was just about to be served.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Resting in the middle of its uncovered surface were three short and
+slender pine logs of the same general height and size and crossed at
+the top, while swinging from this trident was a brightly polished
+copper kettle, piled high tonight with every kind of fruit and with
+giant clusters of white and purple grapes suspended over its sides.
+Encircling the centerpiece, made not of real wood of course but of
+paper bonbons, were three groups of logs representing the insignia of
+the three orders of the Camp Fire, the wood-gatherer's logs having no
+flame, the fire-maker's a small one, while the torch-bearer's flame of
+twisted colored paper seemed to glow as though it were in truth of
+fire.  The mats on the table were embroidered in various Camp Fire
+emblems&mdash;a bundle of seven fagots, a single pine tree, or a disk
+representing the sun.  And at either end of the long table three
+candles had lately been lighted, while standing up around it at their
+appointed places were about twenty guests, the girls dressed in their
+ceremonial costumes, the young men as Boy Scouts.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The effect of the entire scene was so brilliant and so unusual that
+there was small wonder that the latest comer was overwhelmed.  He
+fumbled awkwardly with his hat, cleared his throat, his face so
+crimsoning with embarrassment that actual tears were forced out of his
+eyes.  And then just as the young man was praying that the earth might
+open and swallow him up, a girl came forward from the indeterminate
+mass of persons, who appeared to be swimming in a mist before him, and
+held out her hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am so glad to see you, Mr. Graham.  Nan and I were beginning to be
+afraid you would not be able to come," she said cordially.  "But you
+are just in time, as we are only sitting down to the table this very
+minute."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Meg Everett then led her final guest down what seemed to him a
+mile's length of table, placing him between two persons, whom at the
+moment he did not suppose that he had ever seen.  And before he could
+quite recover his senses there was an unexpected burst of music and
+then a cheer that filled every inch of the cabin space.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wo-he-lo for aye, Wo-he-lo for aye, Wo-he-lo, Wo-he-lo, Wo-he-lo for
+aye!  Wo-he-lo for work, Wo-he-lo for health, Wo-he-lo, Wo-he-lo,
+Wo-he-lo for Love."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And then with laughter Meg Everett's New Year dinner guests took their
+places at the table and in the pause Anthony Graham had a chance to
+pull himself together.  To his relief he found that Miss McMurtry was
+seated on his left side, and at least they were acquaintances.  For
+Miss McMurtry had also come to live in the old Ashton house and often
+passed the young man on the stairs, nodding good-night or good-morning.
+Then he had put up some book-shelves for her in her room and moved the
+furniture to her satisfaction.  So, perhaps the Camp Fire party might
+not be so wretchedly uncomfortable with one person near with whom he
+might exchange an occasional word.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For just what the young man's emotions were this evening, no one except
+a person placed in a similar position could understand.  Perfectly well
+did he appreciate that Meg had asked him to her dinner only because of
+her loyalty and affection for his sister, Nan, as a member of her same
+Camp Fire Club.  The brothers of the other girls had been invited, Jim
+Meade, Frank Wharton and, of course, John Everett, besides others of
+his friends.  So to have left him out might have been to hurt Nan's
+feelings.  His sister was both proud and sensitive over his efforts to
+make a better position for himself in the village.  Yet should he have
+taken advantage of Meg's kindness and accepted her invitation?  Anthony
+was by no means certain.  This same question had been keeping him awake
+for several nights and even after having written his hostess that she
+might expect him to appear he had delayed his approach until the last
+minute.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Assuredly the other young men would not enjoy his presence.  They might
+be coldly polite, but nothing more could be expected.  For no one could
+be more conscious than Anthony was at this time in his life of the
+difference between him and other men of his age, who had the advantages
+of birth and education.  Actually he could feel the grime of his own
+hands as he clutched them nervously together under the table.  Not all
+the scrubbing of the past hour could altogether rid them of the soot
+and dust that came of making fires and sweeping office floors.  And his
+clothes, although brushed until they were spotless, were worn almost
+threadbare in places.  The very shirt that Nan had washed and ironed
+for him, had had to have the frayed ends trimmed away from the
+wrist-bands.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Anthony glanced across the table.  There were Nan's dark eyes smiling
+at him bravely.  She did not look in the least ashamed of him.  And as
+for Nan herself why, she was as pretty a Camp Fire girl as any one at
+the table.  Wearing their Council Fire costumes, each girl decorated
+only with the honor beads which she had won by her own efforts, the
+poorer maids and the rich ones were equally attractive.  For there were
+none of the differences in toilet which any other kind of entertainment
+might have revealed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Nan was not only smiling at her brother, she was nodding at him and
+trying to attract his attention.  Evidently she wished him to glance
+away from Miss McMurtry to his companion on the other side.  And
+Anthony finally did manage to turn shyly half way around.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then with a sudden feeling almost of happiness he discovered that Betty
+Ashton was on his right.  She did not happen to be looking toward him
+at the moment, but was talking to John Everett with more animation than
+he had ever before seen her show.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty had no knowledge of Anthony's having been invited to Meg's Camp
+Fire dinner.  His invitation had not come so soon perhaps as the others
+had received theirs, and afterwards for several days he had had no
+opportunity for conversation with her.  For of course living in Betty's
+house gave him no right to any pretense of friendship with her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yet the moments were passing and she must by this time have become
+conscious of his presence.  Miss McMurtry had called him by name
+several times and no human being could be entirely oblivious of a
+person so near, unless under some peculiar stress of emotion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Anthony felt his former nervousness leaving him.  He was no longer
+blushing; his face had become white and a little stern.  So that when
+Betty finally turned to speak to the young man she had a curious
+impression that his face was unfamiliar, it wore so different an
+expression from any that she had ever seen on it before.  Betty had
+been conscious of Anthony's presence from the instant of his taking his
+place beside her and in failing to recognize him had not deliberately
+intended being rude or unkind.  At first she had been amazed and a
+little chagrined by his presence, for after what she had said to Meg
+she had not dreamed of the young man's being included among the guests.
+Yet this was Meg's entertainment and not hers, and of course she had no
+right to feel or show offense.  Only she and John Everett happened to
+be having such an interesting talk at the moment of Anthony's
+appearance, and assuredly John shared her conviction about the
+newcomer!  One could be kind to the young fellow of course, without
+admitting him within the intimate circle of friendship.  And Betty
+Ashton, although she would never have confessed it, had always been
+greatly influenced by John Everett's opinions and personality.  He was
+such a big blond giant, older and handsomer and more a man of the world
+than any other college fellow in Woodford.  She was flattered, too,
+because he had never failed on his return for holidays to show her more
+attention than any other girl in the village.  He might have other
+friendships outside of his own home; of this she could know nothing,
+but at the present time this thought only made him the more agreeable.
+Therefore it was annoying that she might be expected to waste a part of
+her evening on a young fellow for whom she felt no personal interest,
+only good will.  Betty herself was not conscious of the condescension
+in her attitude, but why did she find it so difficult to begin a
+conversation with the newcomer or even to greet him?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Anthony should at least understand that it was exceedingly ill mannered
+of him to keep staring down into his plate when he must have become
+aware that she was now ready to talk with him.  But what should she say
+first?  Having failed to notice a person's existence for some time
+makes an ordinary "Good evening" appear a bit ridiculous.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How do you do, Mr. Graham?" Betty began half shyly, putting more
+cordiality into her manner than usual in an effort to atone for her
+former lack of courtesy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then for the briefest space Anthony glanced up at her quietly, his
+grave eyes studying hers, until Betty felt her own eyelids flutter and
+was grateful for the length of her dark lashes which swept like a cloud
+before her vision.  For actually she was blushing in the most absurd
+and guilty fashion, as though she had done something for which she
+should feel ashamed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good evening," Anthony returned, and during the rest of the dinner
+party he never voluntarily addressed a single remark to her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty need not have been afraid that he might interfere with her
+opportunity for conversation with John Everett.  For although Anthony
+answered politely any questions that she put to him and listened to
+whatever she wished to say, the greater part of his time he devoted to
+talking with Miss McMurtry and to pursuing his own train of thought.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For if the young man had originally been doubtful as to whether it was
+wise for him to accept Meg Everett's invitation, he was glad now with
+all his heart.  Just what this evening was giving him he had needed.
+Glancing up and down the table, his own resolution was thereby
+strengthened.  If there had been moments when he had wavered, when it
+had seemed easier to slip back into his old way of life and to enjoy
+the companions who were always ready to join hands, he could hereafter
+recall this experience and Betty's treatment of him, as well as the
+sight of the other young men guests.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Some day there should be another reckoning.  These fellows were largely
+what their fathers had made them; they had birth, schooling, the
+influences of cultured homes.  But out in the big world a man's own
+grit and will and ability to keep on working in the face of every
+difficulty counted in the long run.  Anthony clenched his teeth,
+feeling his backbone actually stiffen with the strength of his
+resolution.  Then he had the humor and good sense to laugh at himself
+and to begin taking more pleasure in his surroundings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Here were all the Camp Fire girls whom his sister had talked and
+written so much about, excepting the two whose absence the others were
+lamenting, Polly and Esther.  Here also was the German professor, who
+had lately moved into the Ashton house, sitting on the further side of
+Miss McMurtry and certainly absorbing all of her attention that he
+possibly dared.  But Anthony did not mind; he had a kind of fellow
+feeling for Herr Crippen, who was poor and evidently not of much
+interest or importance in the Lady Betty's estimation.  There at the
+farther end of the table must be Miss Rose Dyer, the Camp Fire Guardian
+whom Nan cared for so deeply, and she certainly was quite as pretty as
+his sister had said.  So why should young Dr. Barton be staring at her
+so severely?  Miss Dyer was only laughing and talking idly with Frank
+Wharton; and every now and then she turned to smile and speak to the
+little girl who sat close beside her.  This must be Faith, the youngest
+of the Sunrise girls, whose mother had lately died and who was now
+living with Miss Dyer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Anthony smiled unexpectedly, so that Betty, who happened to be glancing
+toward him at the moment, was vexed over his ability to amuse himself.
+He had only just guessed why Dr. Barton found it necessary to regard
+Miss Dyer so sternly.  Anthony felt that he would like to make friends
+with this young men.  He was evidently somewhat narrow and puritanical,
+but already had offered to assist him with any of his studies should he
+need help.  And Anthony meant to take advantage of his offer and to
+interest him if he could; for Dr. Barton was just the kind of a friend
+he would like to know intimately in these early days of his struggle.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dinner was finally over, and, stupidly enough, as the guests began
+leaving the table Anthony Graham felt his own shyness and awkwardness
+returning.  They were intending to dance for the rest of the evening,
+and dancing was another of the graces that had been left out of his
+education.  However, he could find himself an inconspicuous corner
+somewhere, and it would be good enough fun to look on.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap12"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XII
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+"LIFE'S LITTLE IRONIES"
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"Mollie O'Neill, if you don't tell me what you and Billy Webster have
+been whispering about all evening and why you look so worried, I don't
+think I can bear it a moment longer," Betty Ashton insisted, having at
+last found her friend alone for a moment, while the other girls and men
+were clearing the living room for the dance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There isn't anything to tell.  At least there really is, but I have
+not been told just what," Mollie sighed in return.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then of course it's Polly?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mollie nodded.  "Early this morning before any of us were awake a
+telegram arrived from Polly begging mother to come to New York at once.
+Polly said she wasn't ill and there was nothing for us to worry over,
+but just the same Sylvia and I have been worried nearly to death all
+day.  For mother got off within a few hours.  Then late this evening
+Billy Webster appears in Woodford after his visit in New York.  And
+though he tells me that he saw Polly and Esther and has confessed that
+he knows why Polly telegraphed for mother, he won't give me the least
+satisfaction about anything.  Can you make any suggestion, Betty dear?
+What difficulty do you suppose Polly has gotten into this time?  For
+certainly it is Polly and not Esther; Esther would never be absurd."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mollie lowered her voice as several of their friends were approaching.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Please don't speak of this, Betty.  Mother left word that we were not
+to mention it outside the family until she learned exactly what was the
+matter.  But of course she said that I might tell you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Before Betty could reply John Everett had invited her to dance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But slowly she shook her head.  "I can't, John.  I know you will think
+it foolish; perhaps it is.  Of course I have come to Meg's party and
+enjoyed it very much.  And yet, well, somehow I don't feel quite like
+dancing.  You understand, don't you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+John acquiesced.  He was disappointed, and yet felt himself able to
+understand almost anything that Betty wished him to, when she looked at
+him with that appealing light in her gray eyes and that rose flush in
+her cheeks.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Never mind," he returned; "I'll find seats for us somewhere, where we
+can manage to talk and yet watch the others."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty smiled.  It was agreeable to be so sought after, and yet under
+the circumstances quite out of the question.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You will please find me a place where I can watch, but not with you.
+This is your party, remember.  Meg will expect you and every man to do
+his duty," she replied.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So after a little further discussion Betty found herself seated upon a
+kind of miniature throne, which John had made for her by piling some
+sofa cushions upon an old divan.  Behind her was a background of cedar
+and pine branches decorating the walls and just above her head
+flickered the lights of candles from a pair of brass sconces.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty wore her red brown hair parted in the middle and in two heavy
+braids, one falling over each shoulder, while around her forehead was a
+blue and silver band with the three white feathers, the insignia of her
+title of "Princess" in their Camp Fire Club.  Her dress was cut a
+little low in the throat and about it were strung seven chains of honor
+beads.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For a little while at least she might have found interest in watching
+the others dance had she not been worried about Polly.  She was uneasy
+and it was stupid to have been given this opportunity to think; for
+thinking could do no possible good.  Whatever mischief Polly had gotten
+into was sure to be beyond one's wildest imagination.  It would be much
+more agreeable if she might have some one to talk with her and so
+distract her attention.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And there was one other guest beside herself who was not dancing.
+Betty flushed uncomfortably.  It must appear strange to the others to
+see Anthony sitting only a short distance away from her and yet paying
+no more attention to her presence than if they were upon opposite sides
+of the world.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Once or twice Betty looked graciously toward the young man, intending
+to smile an invitation to him to sit near her, should he show the
+inclination.  For possibly he was too much embarrassed to make the
+first move.  She must remember that he had had no one to teach him good
+manners and that he was always both shy and awkward in her presence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However, at present he seemed totally unaware of her existence and not
+in the least requiring entertainment.  For he was watching the dancers
+with such profound concentration that apparently his entire attention
+was absorbed by them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girl had an unusually good opportunity for studying the young man's
+face.  She had not noticed until tonight how thin he was and how clear
+and finely cut his features.  There was no trace of his Italian mother
+left, save in his black hair and in the curious glow which his skin
+showed underneath its pallor.  His nose was big&mdash;too big, Betty
+thought&mdash;and his lips closed and firm.  He had a kind of hungry look.
+Hungry for what? the girl wondered.  Then she had a sudden feeling of
+compunction.  Anthony might sometimes even be hungry for food, he
+worked so hard, made so little money and was so busy by day and night.
+Before tonight she might have helped him without his knowing or even
+caring, if he had guessed her purpose.  But after tonight?  Well, Betty
+felt reasonably sure that she and Anthony could never be upon exactly
+the same footing again.  For somehow she had hurt him more than she had
+intended, not realizing that any one could be at once so humble and so
+proud.  And as she had made one of those mistakes that one can never
+apologize for, there was no point in dwelling on it any longer.  Only
+she did regret by this time that deep down in her heart there must
+still linger her old narrow attitude toward money and good birth.  She
+was poor enough herself now, and yet in her case, as in so many others,
+had it not made her feel all the more pride in the distinction of her
+family?  Assuredly she had often whispered to herself that poverty did
+not matter when one bore a distinguished name.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty smothered a sigh and a yawn.  It was tiresome to be sitting there
+thinking and reproaching herself when the others were having such a
+good time.  How splendidly Billy Webster and Mollie danced together!
+He was so strong and dictatorial, so certain of his own judgment and
+opinions.  And Mollie so gentle and yielding!  She smiled over her
+foolish romancing, and yet there was no use pretending that they would
+not make a suitable match should things turn out that way.  Mollie and
+Polly might possibly never be exactly what they had been to each other
+in the past, and Mrs. Wharton had re-married, and Sylvia would soon be
+going away to study nursing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But some one was passing close by and trying to attract her attention.
+Betty waved her hand, but when she had gone frowned a little anxiously.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Edith Norton was dancing with the friend whom she had persuaded Meg to
+ask to her Camp Fire dinner, although none of the rest of the girls
+liked him.  He was a good deal older than their other young men
+acquaintances and a stranger to most of them, having only come to
+Woodford in the past six months and opened a drug store.  But he had
+been entirely devoted to Edith since, and of course as she was nearly
+twenty she should know her own mind.  Notwithstanding, Betty felt
+uneasy and uncomfortable.  They had been hearing things not to
+Frederick Howard's credit in the village, and Edith had always been
+unlike the rest of their Sunrise Camp Fire girls.  She was vainer and
+more frivolous and dreadfully tired of working in a millinery shop in
+Woodford.  This much she had confided to Betty after coming to live in
+the Ashton house.  And both Rose Dyer and Miss McMurtry were afraid
+that Edith might for this reason accept the first opportunity that
+apparently offered to make life easier for her.  So they had asked
+Betty to use her influence whenever it was possible.  Betty it was who
+had first brought Edith into their club, and Edith had always cared for
+her and admired her more than any other of her associates.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty stirred restlessly.  Would she never be able to get away from
+serious thoughts tonight?  But the next instant she had jumped to her
+feet with a quickly smothered cry and stood with her hands clasped
+tightly over her eyes.  For all around her, in her hair falling down
+upon her shoulders and about her face were glittering sparks of heat
+and light.  They were scorching her; already she could smell the odor
+of her burning hair.  One movement the girl made to protect her head,
+then in a flash her hands were covering her eyes again.  She wanted to
+run, and yet some subconscious idea restrained her.  Running would only
+make the flames leap faster and higher.  And surely in an instant some
+one must come to her assistance; for her own low cry had been echoed by
+a dozen other voices.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then Betty felt herself roughly seized and dragged stumbling away from
+her former position, while a sudden, smothering darkness destroyed her
+breath and vision; and none too tender hands seemed to be pressing down
+the top of her head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Another moment and she was pulling feebly at the scorched coat
+enveloping her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Please take it off.  I am all right now.  The fire must be out, and
+I'm stifling," she pleaded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But about her there followed another firm closing in of the heavy
+material.  And then the darkness lifted, showing Anthony Graham
+standing close beside her in his shabby shirt sleeves, holding his
+ruined coat in his hands.  In a terrified group near by was every other
+human being in the room, excepting Jim Meade and Frank Wharton, who
+were pulling down the burning pine and cedar branches from the wall and
+stamping out the last sparks of fire caused by the overturning of one
+of the candles.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What happened to me?  Am I much burned?" Betty asked, trying to smile
+and yet feeling her lips quiver tremulously.  "Won't somebody please
+take me home?"  Now she dared not put up her hands toward her pretty
+hair, for it was enough to try and bear the pain that seemed to be
+covering her head and shoulders like a blanket of fire.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Surely the faces before her must look whiter and more terror-stricken
+than her own.  Mollie and Faith were both crying.  Betty wondered just
+why.  And Anthony Graham was staring at her with such a strange
+expression.  She wanted to thank him, to say that she was sorry and
+grateful at the same time, but could not recall exactly what had
+happened.  Then that funny Herr Crippen was shaking all over and saying
+"Mein liebes Kind," just as though it were Esther who had been hurt.
+At last, however, Rose Dyer and Dr. Barton, each with an arm about her,
+were leading her across the length of that interminable and now
+pitch-black room with a floor that seemed to be rising before her eyes
+like the waves of the sea.  And afterwards, she did not know just when,
+the cold night air brought back to her a returning consciousness, but
+with the consciousness came an even greater sense of pain.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Never in after years could Betty Ashton wholly forget the drive home
+that followed.  Rose Dyer and Miss McMurtry sat on either side of her,
+sometimes talking, sometimes quiet, and now and then gently touching
+her bandaged hands.  Occasionally Dr. Barton asked her a question, to
+which she replied as calmly and intelligently as possible.  Otherwise
+she made no movement that she could help and no sound.  Anthony Graham
+drove silently and grimly forward at the utmost speed that the two
+livery-stable horses could attain.  And although to Betty the journey
+seemed to last half a lifetime, in reality it had seldom been
+accomplished in so short a time.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap13"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XIII
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE INVALIDS
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Sylvia Wharton wearing a trained nurse's costume tiptoed into a
+darkened room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Instantly the figure upon the bed turned and sighed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't see why she does not come to me, if she is no worse than you
+say she is," the voice said.  "Really, Sylvia, I think it would be
+better for you or some one to tell me the truth."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sylvia hesitated.  "She isn't so well, Betty dear.  Perhaps Dr. Barton
+may be angry with me, as he distinctly said that you were not to be
+worried.  But as you are worrying anyhow, possibly talking things over
+with me may make you feel better.  It has all been most unfortunate,
+Polly's being ill here in your house when you were enduring so much
+yourself.  But it all comes of mother's and everybody's yielding to
+whatever Polly O'Neill wishes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sylvia sat down upon the side of the bed, taking one of Betty's hands
+in hers.  Ten days had passed since the accident at the cabin and the
+burns on Betty's hands had almost entirely healed, but over her eyes
+and the upper part of her face was a linen covering, so that it was
+still impossible to guess the extent of her injury.  She was apt to be
+quieter, however, Sylvia had found out, when she could feel some one
+touching her.  And now the news of Polly for the time being kept her
+interested.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You see, mother's first mistake was in not bringing Polly straight
+back home as soon as she found out what she was doing in New York.
+Polly had a slight cold then and it kept getting worse each night.  But
+of course Polly pretended that it amounted to nothing and that the
+stars would fall unless she finished her engagement.  So finish it she
+did, and then hearing of your accident toward the last, as mother and
+Esther had kept the news a secret from her for some time, why come here
+she would instead of immediately going home.  She wanted to help nurse
+and amuse you and you had said that you wanted her with you.  And then
+of course Polly was embarrassed over meeting father and Frank.  And
+father was angry at her disobedience and her frightening mother and
+Mollie.  However, that cold of hers has kept on getting worse and she
+will have to stay in bed now for a few days anyhow.  For I won't let
+Polly O'Neill have her own way this time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A faint smile showed itself on Betty's lips which Sylvia stooped low
+enough to see.  And then in spite of her own stolid and supposedly cold
+temperament, the younger girl's expression changed.  For it meant a
+good deal for any one to have succeeded in making Betty Ashton smile in
+these last few days.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you're fonder of Polly than you are of the rest of us, even
+Mollie, Sylvia, and you let her lead you around," Betty argued.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sylvia's flaxen head was resolutely shaken.  She no longer wore her
+hair in two tight pigtails, but in almost as closely bound braids wound
+in a circle about her face.  Her complexion was still colorless and her
+eyes nondescript, but Sylvia's square chin and her resolute expression
+often made persons take a second look at her.  It was seldom that one
+saw so much character in so young a girl.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I am fond of Polly," she agreed, "but you are mistaken if you
+think I let her influence me.  Some one has to take Polly O'Neill
+sensibly for her own sake."  And Sylvia just in time stifled a sigh.
+For of course her stepsister was in a more serious condition than she
+had confessed to the other girl.  It was well enough to call the
+illness a bad cold&mdash;it was that, but possibly something worse,
+bronchitis, pneumonia&mdash;Dr. Barton had not yet given it a name.  She was
+only to be kept quiet and watched.  Later on he would know better what
+to say.  Her constitution was not strong.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Some telepathic message, however, must have passed from one friend to
+the other, for at this instant Betty sat up suddenly with more energy
+than she had yet shown.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If anything dreadful happens to Polly, I shall never forgive Esther as
+long as I live.  It is all very well for Polly and your mother to
+insist that Esther was not in any possible way responsible.  Mollie and
+I both feel differently.  Esther should have told&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+By the fashion in which Sylvia Wharton arose and walked away from the
+bed, Betty realized how intensely their opinions disagreed, although
+the younger girl moved quietly, with no anger or flurry and made no
+reply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Here are some more roses, Betty, that John Everett sent you.  Shall I
+put them near enough your bed to have you enjoy their fragrance?"
+Sylvia asked.  "John seems to be buying up all the flowers near
+Dartmouth.  I told Meg that you would rather he did not send so many.
+But she says she can't stop him.  For somehow John feels kind of
+responsible for your getting hurt, as he arranged for you to sit under
+those particular candles.  Then he did not notice when you first called
+for help and let Anthony Graham rescue you.  Meg is downstairs now with
+your mother.  Would you like to see her?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty shook her head.  "Please don't let Meg know, but I don't feel
+like talking, somehow.  The girls are so sweet and sympathetic.  And I
+try to be brave, but until I know&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With magically quick footsteps the younger girl had again crossed the
+room and her firm arms were soon about her friend's shoulders.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are going to be all right, dear.  Dr. Barton is almost sure of it
+and I am quite.  There won't be any scars that will last and your
+eyes&mdash;why, you protected them marvelously, and they only need resting.
+You are too beautiful, Betty dear, to have anything happen that could
+in any way mar you.  I can't, I won't believe it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And somehow Sylvia was one of those people in whose judgment and faith
+one must always find healing.  Betty said nothing more, only put out
+her hand with an appealing gesture and caught hold of Sylvia's dress.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't want to talk or to see people, and I'm tired of being read to.
+What is there for me to do, Sylvia child, to make the hours pass?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Rather desperately the younger girl looked about the great, sunshiny
+room.  It was not Betty's old blue room, but the room once used as a
+store-room and afterwards occupied by Esther, into which Betty had
+moved a short while before her accident.  Imagination was not Sylvia
+Wharton's strong point.  She was an excellent nurse, quiet, firm and
+patient and always to be relied upon.  But what to do to make Betty
+Ashton stop thinking of what might await her at the end of her weeks of
+suffering must have taxed a far more fertile brain than Sylvia's.
+However, the suggestion did not have to come from her; for at this
+instant there was a knock at the door, so gentle that it was difficult
+to be sure that it really was a knock.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Outside stood the German professor with his violin under his arm.  And
+he looked so utterly wretched and uneasy that Sylvia wondered how he
+could feel so great an emotion over Betty, although the entire village
+seemed to be worrying as though in reality she had been their own
+"Princess."  No one could talk of anything else until her condition
+became finally known; but Herr Crippen was a newcomer and Betty had
+never cared for him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Would the little <I>Fräulein</I> like it that I should play for her?" he
+now asked gently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Sylvia turned to the girl on the bed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At first Betty had shaken her head, but now she evidently changed her
+mind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are very kind.  I think I should enjoy it," she answered.  And a
+few moments afterwards Sylvia stole away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So there was no one in the room to notice how frequently Herr Crippen
+had to wipe his glasses as he looked down upon the girl of whose face
+he could see nothing now save the delicately rounded chin and full red
+lips.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-153"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-153.jpg" ALT="The professor had to wipe his glasses" BORDER="2" WIDTH="356" HEIGHT="596">
+<H3 CLASS="h3center" STYLE="width: 356px">
+The professor had to wipe his glasses
+</H3>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+Then without worrying her he began to play: in the beginning not
+Beethoven nor Mozart, nor any of the classic music he most loved, but
+the Camp Fire songs, which he had lately arranged for the violin
+because of his interest in the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire girls, and which
+he was playing for the first time before an audience.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Betty listened silently, not voicing her surprise.  The song of
+"The Soul's Desire," what memories it brought back of Esther and their
+first meeting in this room!  No wonder that Esther had so great talent
+with such a queer, gifted father.  Betty wondered idly what the mother
+could have been like.  She was an American and beautiful, so much she
+remembered having been told.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then ceasing to think of Esther she began thinking of herself.  Could
+she ever again even try to follow the Law of the Camp Fire, which had
+meant so much to her in the past few years, if this dreadful tragedy
+which hovered over her, sleeping or waking, should be not just a
+terrible fear, but a living fact.  Should she be scarred from her
+accident, or worse fear, should her eyes be affected by the scorching
+heat of the flames?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Softly under her breath, even while listening with all her soul to the
+music, Betty repeated the Camp Fire Law.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Seek Beauty?"  Could she find it, having lost her own?  Then she
+remembered that the beauty which the Camp Fire taught was not only a
+physical beauty, but the greater kind which is of the spirit as well as
+of the flesh.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Give Service?"  Well, perhaps some day in ways she could not now
+imagine, she might be able to return a small measure of the service
+that her friends had been so generously bestowing upon her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pursue Knowledge, Be Trustworthy."  No misfortune need separate a girl
+from these ideals.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hold on to Health."  This might mean a harder fight than she had ever
+yet had to make before, but Betty felt a new courage faintly struggling
+within her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Glorify Work."  That was not an impossible demand of her as a Torch
+Bearer among her group of Camp Fire girls.  It was the last of the
+seven points of their great law that she dreaded to face at this
+moment, here in the darkness alone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Be Happy."  Could she ever again be happy even for a day or an hour?
+And yet the law said: "If we have pain, to hide it, if others have
+sorrow, be quick to relieve it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But what the rest of the law read she could not now recall.  For Herr
+Crippen was beginning to play one of the most exquisite pieces of music
+that can ever be rendered on the violin, Schubert's Serenade.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"Last night the nightingale woke me,<BR>
+Last night when all was still<BR>
+It sang in the golden moonlight"<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty wondered why the music should sound so strangely far away, as
+though she were dreaming and it were coming to her somewhere out of the
+land of dreams.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Another moment and Betty was sound asleep.  Nevertheless the Professor,
+with his eyes still upon her, played softly on, played until Mrs.
+Ashton noiselessly entered the room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then he ceased and the man and woman, standing one on either side of
+Betty's bed, looked at each other with expressions it would be
+difficult to translate.  For each face held a certain amount of
+pleading and of defiance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She is like her mother; <I>nicht wahr</I>?" the Professor murmured, and
+then withdrew.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Afterwards for several moments Mrs. Ashton's eyes never ceased
+regarding the curls of Betty's red brown hair, that lay outside on her
+pillow.  Her long braids had been cut off and latterly she had been
+wearing a little blue silk cap, which had now slipped off on account of
+her restlessness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mrs. Ashton, glancing in a mirror at her own faded flaxen hair, sighed.
+Then, seating herself in a chair near by she waited in absolute
+patience and quietness, until suddenly from a movement upon the bed she
+guessed that Betty was waking.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And actually her child's lips were smiling upon her not only bravely
+but cheerfully, as though her sleep had brought both comfort and faith.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sit close by me, mother," Betty said, "and don't let any one else come
+in for a long time.  You know I have been trying to get you to tell me
+the history of this old room for ages and now this is such a splendid
+comfy chance.  I am just exactly in the mood for hearing a long,
+thrilling story."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap14"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XIV
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+"WHICH COMES LIKE A BENEDICTION"
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"Tell me exactly what you think, Dr. Barton, please, and don't try to
+deceive me," Betty Ashton pleaded.  "I want to be told the truth at
+once before mother or any one else joins us.  Always I shall be
+grateful to Rose for suggesting that you come here to me alone and when
+no one was expecting you, so that there need be no unnecessary
+suspense."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty Ashton was seated in a low rocking chair one morning a few days
+later, with Dr. Barton standing near and carefully unwrapping the
+bandages from about her head.  The room was not brightly lighted,
+neither was it dark, for a single blind had been drawn up at the window
+on the opposite side of the room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dr. Barton's face showed lines of anxiety and sympathy.  Indeed, Rose
+Dyer could hardly have been persuaded to believe how nervous and shaken
+he appeared and how, instead of his usual look of hardness and
+austerity, he was now as tender and gentle as a woman.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But my dear Betty," he returned in a more cheerful voice than his
+expression indicated, "what I say to you about yourself is by no means
+the last word.  My opinion, you must remember, is of blessedly little
+importance.  If there are any scars left by my treatment of your burns,
+there are hundreds of wonderful big doctors who can perform miracles
+for you.  And then time is the eternal healer."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I know," the girl answered, "but just the same, please hurry and
+let me know what you yourself honestly think.  At least, I shall be
+able to tell myself whether my eyes are injured, as soon as you let me
+try them in a bright light."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For a fraction of a moment Dr. Barton delayed his work.  "Won't you
+allow me to call your mother, or Miss Dyer or Miss McMurtry?  Miss Dyer
+is in the house.  I happen to have seen her.  And it may be better, in
+case you do not feel yourself, to have some one else here to care for
+you.  There is Sylvia.  Actually I believe she has been of as much use
+to you and Polly O'Neill as your professional nurses."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At this instant, although she had set her lips so close together that
+only a pale line showed, Betty's chin quivered, and although her hands
+gripped the sides of her chair so hard that her arms ached, her
+shoulders shook.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+If only Dr. Barton would cease his perfectly futile efforts to distract
+her attention.  Could any human being think of another subject or
+person at a time like this?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Dr. Barton did recognize the clumsiness of his own efforts, only
+his conversation was partly intended to conceal his own anxiety.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't I hear some one coming along the hall?  Are you sure you locked
+the door?" Betty queried uneasily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dr. Barton did not reply.  At this instant, although the linen covering
+still concealed his patient's eyes, he had removed the upper bandages,
+so that now her forehead was plainly revealed to his view.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Betty Ashton's forehead had always been singularly beautiful in the
+past, low and broad with the hair growing in a soft fringe about it and
+coming down into a peak in the center.  Now, however, across her
+forehead there showed a long crimson line, almost like the mark from
+the blow of a whip.  Dr. Barton examined it closely, touched it gently
+with the tips of his fingers and then cleared his throat and attempted
+to speak.  But apparently the needed words would not come.  On either
+side the ugly scar the girl's skin was white and fine as delicate silk
+and on top of her head, which had been protected by her heavy hair, the
+burns had almost completely healed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is all right, Miss Betty," Dr. Barton said in a curiously husky
+voice.  "You are better than I even dared hope.  There is a scar now,
+but I can promise you that it will be only a faint line in the future,
+or else will disappear altogether.  The very fact that the trouble has
+concentrated into the one scar shows that the healing has taken place
+all about it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty's own hands slipped the final covering from about her eyes.  Then
+for a moment her heart seemed absolutely to have stopped beating.  For
+the room swam around her in a kind of disordered dimness.  She could
+see nothing clearly.  In a panic she sprang to her feet, when Dr.
+Barton took a firm hold on her shaking shoulders.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Be quiet, child.  Pull yourself together for just a minute.  You are
+frightened now, you know.  In another moment things will clear up and
+grow more distinct."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And even before he had finished speaking Betty realized this to be the
+blessed truth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There in the far end of the big room stood her bed and, on a table
+near, a bunch of John's pink roses.  She could even see their bright
+color vividly.  In another direction was her dressing table and about
+it hung the photographs of Rose, of Miss McMurtry, of the eleven Camp
+Fire girls.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dropping back into her chair Betty, covering her face with her hands,
+began to sob.  And she cried on without any effort at self-control
+until she was limp and exhausted, although all the while her heart was
+saying its own special hymn of thanksgiving.  And young Dr. Barton kept
+patting her upon the shoulder and urging her not to cry, because now
+there was nothing to cry about, until Betty would like to have laughed
+if the tears had not been bringing her a greater relief.  How like a
+man not to understand that she could now permit herself the indulgence
+of tears, when for the past two weeks she had not dared, fearing that
+once having given way there would be no end.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Would you mind leaving me for a few minutes and trying to find
+mother?" Betty at last managed to ask.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She wanted to be alone.  But a few seconds after the doctor's
+disappearance, Betty got up and with trembling knees managed to cross
+her room, feeling dreadfully weak and exhausted from the long suspense.
+For she wished to look into a mirror with no one watching.  And as
+Betty Ashton got the first glimpse of herself, although vanity had
+never been one of her weaknesses, she honestly believed that she never
+had seen any one look so tragically ugly before in her entire life.
+She hardly recognized herself.  Her face was white and thin, almost
+bloodless except for the scar upon her forehead.  Then her hair had
+been cut off, and though in some places the curls still remained heavy
+and thick, in others she looked like a badly shorn lamb.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And this time the tears crowding Betty's eyes were not of relief but of
+wounded vanity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I never saw any one so hideous in my life," she remarked aloud.  "And
+I am truly sorry for the people who must have the misfortune of looking
+at me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty was wearing an Empire blue dressing gown and slippers and
+stockings of the same color.  Her eyes were dark gray and misty with
+shadows under them.  She looked ill, of course, and unlike her usual
+self, and yet it would be difficult for any misfortune to have made
+Betty Ashton actually ugly.  For beauty is one of the most difficult
+things in the world to define and one of the easiest to see&mdash;a
+possession that is at once tangible and intangible.  And Betty
+possessed the gift in a remarkable degree.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Therefore she did not look unattractive to the eyes of the young man
+who was now staring at her in astonishment, fear and delight, from her
+own open doorway, which Dr. Barton, on leaving the room, had neglected
+to close.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am sorry.  Oh, I am so glad!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Anthony Graham murmured.  "I was passing your room; I didn't mean to
+intrude.  But nothing matters now you are well again and looking like
+yourself.  It's so wonderful, so splendid, so&mdash;&mdash;"  And the young man,
+who was ordinarily quiet and reserved, fairly stammered with the rush
+of his own words.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty walked shyly toward him with her eyes still filled with tears.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I am dreadful to look at, but I must not complain," she answered
+wistfully.  "A Camp Fire girl ought to have learned some lessons in
+bravery and endurance.  Please let's don't talk about me.  I want to
+thank you, for if it had not been for you, I might have&mdash;I can't bear
+to think even now what might have happened to me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then don't," the young man returned brusquely, but Betty did not this
+time misunderstand his manner.  "I did not do anything.  I ought to
+have gotten to you sooner.  I have been hating myself ever since for
+the time I took to reach you.  After all you had done for me in the
+past!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next moment the girl put her hand into the boy's hard,
+work-roughened one.  "Ask Nan to tell the others for me.  And remember
+that no matter what has happened or may happen in the future, I shall
+always feel myself in your debt, not you in mine."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap15"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XV
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+SECRETS
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+It was sundown.  The big Ashton house, although so filled with people,
+was oddly quiet.  Betty Ashton slipped out of her own room into the
+hall and hurried along the empty corridor.  Once only she stopped and
+smiled, partly from amusement and partly from satisfaction.  Herr
+Crippen's door was half open and so was Miss McMurtry's and the
+Professor was playing on his violin.  Such sentimental love ditties!
+The air throbbed with German love songs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Betty had a mischievous desire to stick her head into Miss
+McMurtry's room and see if she was engaged in some maiden-like
+occupation, such as marking school papers or reading the <I>Woodford
+Gazette</I>.  Or was she sitting, as she should be, with her hands idly
+folded in her lap and her heart and mind absorbed in the music?  Never
+had Betty given up her idea that a romance was in the making between
+their first Camp Fire guardian and Esther's father.  And often since
+their coming to live in her house had she not seen slight but
+convincing evidences?  Why should Donna so often appear with a single
+white rose pinned to her dress or take to playing the same tunes on the
+piano that the Professor played on his violin, particularly when she
+was an exceedingly poor pianist?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nevertheless it was not awe of her teacher and guardian that kept Betty
+from investigating the state of her emotions at this moment; neither
+was it any fear of antagonism between them, for since Esther's
+departure to study in New York, Miss McMurtry apparently felt more
+affection for Betty than for any of the other Camp Fire girls.  No, it
+was simply because she had a very definite purpose which she wished to
+accomplish without interruption or opposition.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next instant and she had paused outside a closed door and stood
+listening tensely.  There were no noises inside, no voices, nor the
+stir of any person moving about.  Betty put her hand on the knob and
+opened it silently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Instantly there was a little cry and Betty and Polly O'Neill were in
+each other's arms.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Betty, you darling," Polly gasped, "turn on every light in this room
+and let me stare and stare at you.  There isn't anything in the world
+the matter with you.  You are as lovely as you ever were.  Oh, I have
+been so frightened!  I have not believed what anybody told me, and it
+seemed it must be a part of my punishment that you had been injured.
+It is absurd of me, I suppose, but I have had a kind of feeling that
+perhaps if I had been at Meg's party I should have been with you at the
+time so that it couldn't have happened."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Foolish Polly!  But when was Polly anything but foolish?" the other
+girl returned, taking off her cap and pushing back her hair.  "You see
+I am a sight, dear, but it does not matter a great deal.  I am kind of
+getting used to myself these last few days.  So I didn't see any reason
+why, since you are better and I am perfectly well, we could not be
+together.  Even if it does give you a kind of a shock to look at me,
+you'll get over it, won't you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In reply Polly had one of her rather rare outbursts of affection.  She
+was never so demonstrative as the other girls.  Her devotions had ways
+of expressing themselves in an occasional compliment tendered perhaps
+in some whimsical, back-handed fashion, or in a fleeting caress, which
+came and was gone like the touch of a butterfly's wing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Now, however, she took her friend's face between her two hands and
+kissed her quietly, almost solemnly upon the line of her injury.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Never say a thing like that to me again as long as you live, Betty
+Ashton.  Perhaps I haven't as much affection as other people.  Mother
+and Mollie are both insisting it lately.  Still I know that&mdash;&mdash;but how
+silly we are to talk of it!  You are not changed.  Of course I am sorry
+that your hair had to be cut off, but it will grow out again and the
+scar will disappear.  I wish I could get rid of my"&mdash;Polly
+hesitated&mdash;"blemishes so easily," she finished.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty looked puzzled.  "What do you mean?  Sylvia says you are very
+much better and that there is no reason why you should not get up.  She
+declares that it is only that you won't and that she does not intend
+nursing you or letting any one else take care of you after a few days,
+unless you do what Dr. Barton tells you.  Sylvia is a dreadfully firm
+person.  She was quite angry with me when I said that I did not believe
+you were well and that I was quite strong enough now to take care of
+you and you should not get out of bed until you had entirely recovered."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I have entirely recovered and I am well and somehow I can't manage
+to deceive Sylvia Wharton no matter how hard I try," Polly announced in
+a half-amused and half-annoyed manner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then why are you trying to?" Betty naturally queried.  Of course one
+never actually expected to understand Polly O'Neill's whims, but now
+and then one of them appeared a trifle more mysterious than the others.
+"If you are still tired and feel you prefer to remain in bed, that is a
+sure sign you are not strong enough to get up, and Dr. Barton and
+Sylvia ought to realize it," she continued, still on the defensive.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Polly only smiled at her.  "But, dear, I don't prefer to remain in
+bed.  I am so deadly bored with it that as soon as I am left alone I
+get up and dance in the middle of the floor just to have a little
+relief.  Can't you and mother and Mollie understand (I don't believe
+any one does except Sylvia) that I don't want to get up because I don't
+want to have to face the music?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Still the other girl looked puzzled.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Can't you see that as long as I have been able to be sick nobody has
+dared to say very much to me about my escapade in New York?  Oh, of
+course I know what they think and mother did manage to say a good deal
+before we came home; still, there is a great deal more retribution
+awaiting me.  In the first place, I shall have to go home to the
+Wharton house.  I realize it has been dreadful, my being sick here, but
+I am everlastingly grateful to you and your mother.  Mr. Wharton won't
+say anything much; he really is very kind to me; but naturally I know
+what he thinks.  And then when Frank Wharton is there it will be so
+much worse.  You see, Frank and I quarreled once, because I thought he
+was rude to mother.  And of course he considers my disobedience worse
+than his rudeness.  And as he is perfectly right, I can't imagine how I
+shall answer him back the next time we argue."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As Polly talked she had risen into a sitting posture in bed and was now
+leaning her chin on her hand in a characteristic attitude and quite
+unconscious of the amusing side to her argument until Betty laughed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly had on a scarlet flannel dressing sacque and her hair was tied
+with scarlet ribbons.  And indeed her cheeks were almost equally vivid
+in color.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But there isn't anything funny about my punishment, Betty dear.  And
+the worst of it is that I know I deserve all of it and more and shan't
+ever have the right to complain.  Mother declares that she does not
+expect to allow me to leave Woodford again until I am twenty-one, since
+she has no more faith in me.  And then, and then&mdash;" Polly's entire face
+now changed expression&mdash;"has any one told you that my behavior is to be
+openly discussed at the next meeting of our Camp Fire Club?  Perhaps I
+won't be allowed to be a member any longer."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Instantly Betty jumped up from her kneeling position by the bed and
+commenced walking up and down the length of the room, saying nothing at
+first, but with her lips set in obstinate lines.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But it isn't the custom of Camp Fire clubs to act as both judge and
+jury, is it, Polly?" she inquired.  "At least, I have never heard of
+any other club's undertaking such a task.  We are allowed, I know, to
+be fairly free in what we do in our individual clubs, but somehow this
+action seems unkind and dangerous.  For if once we begin criticising
+one another's faults or mistakes, after a while there won't be any
+club.  Right now Edith Norton is behaving very foolishly, I think, but
+I wouldn't dream of even discussing her with you or any one of the
+girls.  I&mdash;&mdash;"  Betty paused to get her breath, her indignation and
+opposition to Polly's information overwhelming her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Polly held out both hands, entreating her to sit beside her again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are mistaken.  I did not explain the circumstances to you as I
+should have.  It is all my idea and my plan to have the girls consider
+my misconduct and find out how they feel about me," Polly explained
+quietly.  "I spoke of it first to Rose and then to Miss McMurtry and at
+first they thought in a measure as you do.  But I don't agree with you.
+You remember that our honor beads come to us for obedience and service
+to our Camp Fire laws.  Why should not disobedience make us unworthy to
+wear them?  In the old days if an Indian offended against the laws of
+his tribe he was made to suffer the penalty.  And I don't want you
+girls to keep me in our club just because you are sorry for me and are
+too kind to be just.  Mollie has told me how horrified Meg and Eleanor
+and Nan are, and of course Rose and Donna have not pretended to hide
+their disapproval, even during their consolation visits to me as an
+invalid.  But you will forgive me, won't you, Betty?"  Polly ended with
+more penitence than she had yet shown to any one save her mother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course I forgive you.  But if you had not gotten well I should
+never have forgiven Esther," the other girl answered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Two fingers were laid quickly across Betty Ashton's lips.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't be unfair and absurd," Polly protested; "for some day you may be
+sorry if you don't understand just how big and generous Esther Crippen
+is.  It isn't only that she would sacrifice her own desires for other
+people's, but that she actually has.  I would not be surprised if
+Esther did not have some secret or other."  And Polly stopped suddenly,
+biting her tongue.  Not for worlds would she even in the slightest
+fashion betray a suspicion or inference of her own concerning the
+friend who had been so loyal and devoted to her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Fortunately Betty was too intent upon her own thoughts to have heard
+her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have to go back to my own room now, but you are not to worry, Polly
+mine, not about anything.  In the first place, you are not to go home
+very soon.  I have talked to your mother and mine and persuaded them
+that I need to have you stay on here with me.  I do need you, Polly.
+It is queer, but I want you to come and sleep in the old back room with
+me.  I have gotten nervous being in there by myself.  There is a
+mystery about the room greater than I have dreamed.  I have only been
+joking half the time when I have spoken of it.  But the other day I got
+mother to the point where there was no possible excuse for her not
+explaining the entire reason for her attitude and Dick's toward the
+place, when suddenly she broke down and left me.  We might amuse
+ourselves while we are invalids discovering whether or not it is
+haunted.  Only I don't exactly wish to make the discovery alone."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap16"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XVI
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE LAW OF THE FIRE
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Mollie O'Neill walked slowly toward the Ashton house one afternoon not
+long afterwards at about four o'clock, looking unusually serious and
+uncomfortable.  She was wearing a long coat buttoned up to her chin and
+coming down to the bottom of her dress, and was carrying a big book.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mollie, there isn't anything the matter?  Neither Betty nor Polly is
+worse again?" Billy Webster inquired, unexpectedly striding across from
+the opposite side of the street and not stopping to offer his greeting
+before beginning his questioning.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mollie shook her head, although her face still retained so solemn an
+expression that the young man was plainly alarmed.  Ordinarily Mollie's
+blue eyes were as untroubled as blue lakes and her forehead and mouth
+as free from the lines of care or even annoyance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Billy Webster put the book under his arm and continued walking along
+beside her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If there is anything that troubles you, Mollie, and you believe that I
+can help you, please don't ever fail to call on me," he suggested in
+the gentle tones that he seemed ever to reserve for this girl alone.
+"I know that Polly is dreadfully angry over my interference in New
+York, but so long as you and your mother thought I did right and were
+grateful to me, I don't care how Polly feels&mdash;at least, I don't care a
+great deal.  And I believe I should behave in exactly the same way if I
+had it all to do over again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Shyly and yet with an admiration that she did not attempt to conceal
+Mollie glanced up at her companion.  Billy was always so determined, so
+sure of his own ideas of right and wrong, that once having made a
+decision or taken a step, he never appeared to regret it afterwards.
+And this attitude under the present circumstances was a consolation to
+Mollie.  For oftentimes since Polly's return and while enduring her
+reproaches, she had experienced twinges of conscience for having
+concerned an outsider in their family affairs, though somehow Billy did
+not seem like an outsider.  Polly had insisted that she had been most
+unwise in asking him to look up Esther and herself immediately upon his
+arrival in New York.  How much better had she waited and let Polly make
+her confession to their mother later, thus saving all of them
+excitement and strain!  However, since Billy was still convinced that
+he would do the same thing over again in a similar position, Mollie
+felt her own uncertainty vanish.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, there isn't anything you can help about this afternoon," she
+replied.  "I am only going to a monthly meeting of our Council Fire.
+The girls told me that if I liked I need not come, yet it seems almost
+cowardly to stay away.  For you see Polly has insisted that we talk
+over her conduct and decide whether or not we wish her to remain a
+member of our club.  Or at least whether some of her honor beads should
+be taken from her and her rank reduced.  There is a good deal of
+difference of opinion.  For some of the girls are convinced that once
+our honor beads are lawfully won, nothing and no one has the right to
+take them from us; while others feel that breaking the law of the Camp
+Fire should render one unworthy of a high position in the Council and
+that even though one is not asked to resign, at least one should be
+relegated to the ranks again.  But of course all this is a secret and
+must never be spoken of except in our club."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Like an officer stripped of his epaulettes," Billy murmured.  And
+afterwards: "See here, Mollie, if this is a club secret then you ought
+not to have told me and I ought not to have listened.  For it is pretty
+rough on Polly.  But I promise not to mention it and will try to
+forget.  We must not make her any more down upon me than she is
+already."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The young man and girl had now come to the Ashton front gate, and as
+they stopped, Billy gave the book to Mollie and could not forbear
+patting her encouragingly upon the coat sleeve.  She looked so gentle
+and worried.  Polly always seemed to be getting her into hot water
+without really intending that Mollie should be made to suffer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It will turn out all right, I am sure," he insisted in a convincing
+tone.  "Your sister will always have too many friends to let things go
+much against her in this world."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mollie found that the other girls had already assembled in the Ashton
+drawing room and, as she was late, the camp fire had been laid and
+lighted, following the same ceremony as if it had taken place outdoors.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The members were all present excepting Polly, who had declined coming
+down to make her own defense, and Esther, who was still at work in New
+York.  The two Field girls, Juliet and Beatrice, completed the original
+number, as they were both in Woodford for the winter attending the High
+School.  Rose Dyer, with Faith's hand tight in hers, appeared uneasy
+and distressed.  In her rôle of Camp Fire Guardian she was not assured
+of the wisdom of their proceedings and could find no precedent for it
+among other Camp Fire clubs.  However, Miss McMurtry had consented to
+join their meeting and, as she had been the original and was now the
+head Guardian of all the clubs in Woodford, the responsibility might
+honestly be shared with her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For the first time since her accident Betty Ashton was able to attend a
+gathering of the Council Fire; and although she was the center of the
+greater part of the attention and affection in the room, Betty appeared
+as nervous and worried as Mollie O'Neill.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To both of the girls this open discussion of one of their club member's
+misdeeds was abhorrent.  And that the accused should be their adored
+but often misguided Polly made the situation the more tragic and
+distasteful.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Although she was not yet in a position to be positive, Betty felt
+reasonably convinced that Edith Norton was at the bottom of this formal
+judgment of Polly.  So skilfully and quietly had the older girl gone to
+work that both Rose Dyer and Miss McMurtry were under the impression
+that the original suggestion had come from the culprit herself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Yet the truth was that Edith Norton had a smaller nature than any other
+member of the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire Club and she and Polly had never
+been real friends since the night long ago of the Indian "Maiden's
+Feast," when Edith thinking to fix the guilt of a theft upon Nan
+Graham, had wakened Polly to a sudden sense of her own responsibility.
+And it was following a visit of condolence to Polly's sick room by
+Edith that swift as a flash Polly had announced herself as willing and
+ready to have her conduct considered by the club council.  For it
+afterwards appeared that Edith had casually mentioned that the other
+girls had been talking among themselves of this question of Polly's
+fitness or unfitness to continue a "Torch Bearer" in the club.  So with
+her usual recklessness and impulsiveness she had insisted that her
+offense be openly considered and that she receive whatever punishment
+might be considered just.  Never had she planned denying her misdeed
+nor taking refuge behind her friends' affection.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Therefore both Betty and Mollie had been entreated, even ordered, to
+listen quietly to whatever might be said of her behavior and without
+protest.  And Mollie had agreed.  Betty had reserved the right to use
+her own discretion and had no intention of not making herself felt when
+the moment arrived.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After the regular business of the meeting had been concluded a marked
+silence followed, the girls hardly daring even to glance toward one
+another.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Rose Dyer coughed nervously, yet as she had been chosen to set Polly's
+case plainly before the other girls and to ask for their frank opinions
+of what action, if any, the Sunrise Hill Club desired to take, her
+responsibility must not be evaded.  Of course all of the girls had
+previously heard the entire story, but perhaps in a more or less highly
+colored fashion.  And particularly Polly O'Neill insisted that Esther
+Crippen's part in her action be explained.  For Esther must not be held
+in any way accountable, as both Betty and Mollie had been inclined to
+feel.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When Rose had finished a simple statement of the facts of the case and
+had asked to hear from the other club members, no one answered.  Betty
+kept her eyes severely fastened upon Edith Norton's face.  Surely Edith
+must be aware of her knowledge of certain facts that were as much to
+her discredit as Polly's disobedience.  Of course nothing could induce
+her to make capital of this knowledge, since Betty Ashton's
+interpretation of Camp Fire loyalty was of a different kind from Edith
+Norton's, as the older girl was one day to find out.  Nevertheless
+there was nothing to prevent Betty from using her influence with the
+hope that Edith might be discouraged from making any suggestion that
+would start the tide of feeling rolling against the culprit.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This Council Meeting might be a greater test of the entire Camp Fire
+organization than any one of the girls realized.  Possibly it had been
+a mistake to allow the fitness or unfitness of a fellow member to be
+openly discussed; especially when the girl was Polly O'Neill, for Polly
+was a powerful influence always and the club might easily split upon a
+criticism of her.  Whatever should happen, however, Betty Ashton
+intended using every effort to keep the Sunrise Hill Camp together,
+saving Polly also if she could.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In spite of her friend's restraining glance, Edith apparently failed to
+regard her, for instead she glanced insinuatingly toward Eleanor Meade
+and Meg Everett.  Both these girls had expressed themselves as deeply
+shocked and grieved over Polly's behavior, though neither of them
+appeared to be ready to make any statement of their views on this
+occasion.  It was one thing to express an informal opinion of another
+girl's action, but quite another to make a formal accusation against
+her in the club where they had lived and worked and grown together in
+bonds almost closer than family ones.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Next Edith studied Sylvia Wharton's expression.  Day and night had
+Sylvia nursed Polly with infinite patience, and yet she had made no
+effort to conceal her disapproval of her stepsister's conduct and
+Sylvia might always be relied upon for an honest and straightforward
+statement of her opinion.  Yet Sylvia's face at the present moment was
+as empty as though she had never had an idea in her life.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just why this continuing silence should make the original Sunrise Hill
+Camp Fire guardian smile, no one understood.  However, the Lady of the
+Hill knew very well why and was feeling strangely relieved.  For had
+she not permitted a dangerous test of the Camp Fire spirit to be tried
+and were the girls not responding just as she had hoped and believed
+they would?  Surely during these past two years they had been
+developing a real understanding of comradeship, the ability to stick
+together, to keep step.  And girls and women had for so many centuries
+been accused of the inability to do this.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think that no one of us holds Esther Crippen in any way responsible
+for Polly O'Neill's action or for continuing to keep her family in
+ignorance of what she was doing," Edith finally began in a rather weak
+voice, seeing that no one else showed any sign of speaking.  "It is one
+of the things that I think she is most to be blamed for, since it is
+hardly fair to bring another club member into a difficulty on account
+of her feeling of personal loyalty."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty frowned.  There was so much of truth in Edith's speech that it
+could hardly fail to carry a certain amount of conviction.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But before any one could reply, Sylvia Wharton got up from the floor,
+where she had been sitting in Camp Fire fashion, and crossing the room,
+stood before the flames, facing the circle of girls with her hands
+clasped in front of her and her lips shut tight together.  Her usually
+sallow skin was a good deal flushed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am going to make a motion to this club," she announced, "but before
+I do I want to say something, and everybody knows how hard it is for me
+to talk.  I can do things sometimes, but I can't say them.  Just now
+Edith Norton used the word, 'loyalty.'  I am glad she did, because it
+is just what I want to speak of&mdash;because it seems to me that loyalty is
+the very foundation stone of all our Camp Fires.  Of course Polly has
+broken a part of our law.  She has failed to be trustworthy, but I am
+not going into that, since each one of you can have your own opinion of
+her behavior and would have it anyway no matter what I said.  But the
+whole point is, won't every single girl in the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire
+Club possibly break some of the rules some day?  As we are only human,
+I think we are pretty sure to.  So I move that we say nothing more
+about Polly.  Perhaps others of us have done things nearly as bad or
+will do them.  But more important and what I would so much like to
+persuade you to feel about as I feel is this:"&mdash;and Sylvia's plain face
+worked with the strength of an emotion which few people had ever seen
+her display before&mdash;"I want us to promise ourselves and one another
+that no matter what any fellow member of the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire
+Club ever does, or what mistake she may make, or even what sin she may
+commit, that no one of us will ever turn her back upon her or fail to
+do anything and everything in our power to help her and to make things
+happy and comfortable again.  I wish I could talk like Betty and Polly,
+but you do understand what I mean," Sylvia concluded with tears
+compounded of embarrassment and earnestness standing in her light blue
+eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hear, hear!" whispered Miss McMurtry a little uncertainly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Rose Dyer clapped her hands softly together.  The sound gave the
+necessary suggestion to the other girls, and poor Sylvia crept back to
+her place in the circle in a storm of applause.  It was the simplest
+method by which the girls could reveal their deeper emotions.  A few
+moments afterward Sylvia's proposal was put into the form of a regular
+motion and carried without a dissenting voice.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap17"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XVII
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+A FIGURE IN THE NIGHT
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"Polly," a muffled voice murmured in so low a tone that the sound was
+scarcely audible.  Then a cold hand was slid beneath the bed clothes,
+clasping a warm, relaxed one and pressing it with sudden intensity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Betty, did you call me?" Polly O'Neill inquired, turning over sleepily
+and trying to pierce the darkness so as to get a view of her companion.
+Now that she was coming to her senses, she could feel Betty's body
+straining close up against her own and her lips almost touching her ear.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was between two and three o'clock in the morning and the two friends
+had been sleeping together in Betty Ashton's old-fashioned four-post
+bed, hung with blue curtains that opened only for a space of several
+feet in the center of the two sides.  The room was dark and cold, for
+there was no light burning and the sky outside held the blackness that
+often precedes the dawn.  A window was open, letting in sudden gusts of
+freezing air.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You aren't ill, are you?" Polly was about to ask when the other girl's
+fingers closed over her mouth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't speak and don't stir," Betty whispered, still in almost
+noiseless tones.  "Just listen for a moment.  Try and not be
+frightened, but do you think you can hear any one moving about in this
+room?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For the first instant Polly felt a decided inclination to laugh.  What
+an absurd suggestion Betty was making!  She must have been asleep and
+dreamed something that had frightened her.  It was rather to be
+expected, however, after the shock of her accident at the cabin.
+Therefore it would be best to gratify her fancy; and Polly set herself
+to listening dutifully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then Polly herself started, only to feel once more the other girl's
+restraining clasp.  But the sound she had heard was only the banging of
+the blind against the window.  Nevertheless with the quick Irish
+sensitiveness to impressions, to subtle suggestions, she was beginning
+to have a terrifying consciousness of some other person in their
+bedroom than herself and Betty.  And yet she had so far heard nothing,
+seen nothing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Look through the opening in the curtain toward the farthest end of the
+room&mdash;there by the big closet door," Betty whispered.  "Be perfectly
+still, for I am quite sure that the figure has passed entirely around
+the room twice as though it were groping for something.  I can't see, I
+can only hear it, and once I felt sure that a hand touched our bed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Shadowy, terrifyingly silent, an indistinct outline was discernible
+along the opposite wall and a hand moving slowly up and down it as if
+searching for something.  Could it be for the door of the closet only a
+few feet away?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Both girls for the moment were too frightened or too surprised to stir
+or to call out.  The idea of jumping suddenly from the bed and running
+toward the intruder had occurred to Betty, who was the more widely
+awake, although she had confessed to herself that she was neither brave
+nor foolish enough to do it.  For the figure was too mysterious, too
+uncertain, and whether man or woman, boy or girl, she had no
+conception.  Why, it was only the fact of the hand which proved that it
+was even human!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then both girls lay rigid once more, with not a muscle moving, scarcely
+believing that they breathed.  For the form was again flitting down the
+length of the room, possibly toward their bed.  The next second and it
+had passed through Betty's evidently unlatched door and vanished
+noiselessly into the hall.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly was sleeping on the outside of the bed, so it was she who first
+leaped upon the floor, turning on the electric light until the room was
+brilliantly illuminated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are not to stir until I can go along with you," Betty protested,
+following her immediately.  And then both girls lost a moment of time
+in putting on their dressing gowns, for the night was bitterly cold.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Shall we call somebody first?" Polly inquired, all at once in the
+lighted room feeling uncertain as to whether the experience through
+which they had lately passed had been a real one.  Nothing in their
+room was changed in the least since their going to bed.  There were
+Betty's clothes on one chair and her own upon another.  There was the
+book she had been reading left open upon the desk, and Betty's
+unfinished letter to Esther.  Had they both gone suddenly mad?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Betty had lighted a candle; so Polly followed until they were able
+to light the gas in the second story hall.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was no one about.  All the other bedroom doors were safely closed
+and the Professor was apparently snoring hoarsely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Shall we call your mother or wake up anybody?" Polly questioned.  But
+Betty shook her head.  She looked pale, and her eyes were uncomfortably
+mystified.  Otherwise she appeared perfectly self-controlled.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, let us not call anybody and not mention our alarm until morning.
+If our visitor was a burglar, he knows that we are aware of his
+presence and so won't try any more performances tonight.  And if it
+wasn't a burglar, but a ghost, why, there is no use frightening mother
+to death and we will only get laughed at by the others.  It seems queer
+to me for either a ghost or a burglar to come into a house so filled
+with people.  If you don't mind, Polly, let us just go on back to bed
+and leave the light burning for our consolation.  We had both better
+try to sleep."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sleep, however, after their few moments of terror and in the face of
+the enigma of their unexplained visitor, was impossible.  Also the
+light in the bedroom did not induce slumber, although both girls found
+it agreeable.  Their door leading out into the corridor was now
+securely latched, notwithstanding that Betty was not in the habit of
+locking it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Betty," Polly asked after a few moments of silence, when the two
+friends were back again in bed with their arms clasped close about each
+other, "the closet there at the end of your room&mdash;is it one where
+either you or your mother keep your clothes?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," the other girl repeated thoughtfully.  "I had not thought of
+that.  But it only makes things queerer than ever.  For the closet is a
+particularly large one and has always been stored with rubbish.  It has
+an old trunk in it and some pictures and boxes.  I don't think there is
+anything of value, though I don't know exactly what is in the trunk, or
+the boxes either for that matter.  I have often meant to clear the
+place out, but I have never needed the space and mother pokes around in
+it sometimes.  It is ridiculous to suppose that a burglar would take an
+interest in old trash, when there are so many other valuable things
+about.  Besides, suppose there should happen to be a few treasures in
+one of the boxes or the trunk, nobody could know about it when I don't.
+Oh dear, I wish it were morning!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty sighed deeply, tumbling about restlessly in a fashion that made
+her a very undesirable bed companion.  And yet Polly, who was
+ordinarily nervous from the slightest movement, made no protest.  And
+she said nothing more for some time, although it was self-evident that
+she was not growing sleepy.  Her rather oddly shaped blue eyes had a
+far-away, almost uncanny light in them, that somehow added to Betty's
+discomfort.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Look here, Polly O'Neill," she protested, giving her arm an
+affectionate squeeze, "please don't be wishing a ghost upon us.  I know
+you have always believed in Irish fairies and elves and hobgoblins and
+the like, and used to fuss with poor Mollie and me outrageously because
+we couldn't or wouldn't see them.  But tonight&mdash;Oh, well, even Irish
+ghosts don't come strolling into one's bedroom.  They at least have the
+courtesy to stay in churchyards and in haunted ruins."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, but isn't this the haunted room of this house, Betty?" Polly
+inquired in a faintly teasing voice, which yet held a note of serious
+questioning in it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And immediately Betty's face grew white and frightened, far more so
+than at any moment before during their adventure, so that the other
+girl was instantly regretful of her speech.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Polly O'Neill," two firm hands next took hold on Polly's thin
+shoulders, turning her deliberately over in bed so that she was forced
+to face her questioner, "ever since I can remember there has been some
+mystery or other connected with this old room.  Of course it is not
+haunted.  I suppose sensible people don't believe in ghosts, though I
+don't see why not believing makes them fail to exist.  But the room may
+have had a tragedy of some kind take place in it, something that both
+mother and Dick find it painful to mention or recall.  I told you that
+mother would not explain her feeling to me when I insisted upon
+knowing.  However, I don't think my family has the right to keep a
+secret from me.  I am nearly grown now and no longer the kind of girl I
+used to be.  So see here, Polly.  Look me directly in the eyes.
+Oftentimes outsiders hear things first.  Have you ever heard of a
+sorrow or accident, or even something worse, that may have occurred in
+this house or even in this room when I was too little a girl to
+understand or remember it?  You must tell me the truth."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly shook her head, devoutly thankful at the moment for her own lack
+of information.  With Betty's beautiful, honest gray eyes searching her
+own, with her lips trembling and her cheeks flushed with the fervor of
+her desire, her friend would have found deceiving her extremely
+difficult.  Yet it was more agreeable to change the subject of their
+talk, even though it continued upon dangerous grounds.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, Betty, I was not thinking of ghosts nor of the fact that you have
+always been absurdly curious about the mystery of this room.  I was
+thinking of something altogether different&mdash;of a thief, in fact&mdash;and I
+was wondering whether you would be angry or hurt or both if I mention
+something to you?" Polly returned.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty kissed her friend's thin cheek, wishing at the same instant that
+it would grow more rounded, now that Polly was presumably well.  "You
+don't usually mind making me angry, dear," she smiled.  "And I don't
+see why if you have a possible theory of a burglar that I should be
+hurt.  Do you think the figure we saw was a man's or a woman's?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't know," the other girl replied.  "What I have been wondering is
+just this: Has any one in this house ever come into this room with your
+mother when she was rummaging in that old closet, to help her move the
+furniture or lift things about?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For a moment Betty frowned and then her face flamed crimson.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are not fair, Polly.  You never have approved of his living here
+or my being kind to him.  And you have said half a dozen times that
+there was no special point in my being particularly grateful to him,
+since any one of our friends would have done just what he did, had they
+been equally near me.  But then of course that does not alter the fact.
+Now just because <I>he</I> has been in here to assist mother does not prove
+anything, does not even make it fair to be suspicious."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly shrugged her shoulders.  "I knew you would be angry, so I am
+sorry I spoke.  But you see our first meeting in the woods with the
+young man when your safety box was almost stolen from you was a little
+unfortunate.  But I don't say that I suspect any one, either, and I
+have no intention of not being fair.  However, I do intend to keep on
+the lookout.  Now kiss me good morning, for I am going to turn out the
+light.  The gray dawn seems at last to be breaking and perhaps we may
+both get a little sleep before breakfast time."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap18"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XVIII
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+UNCERTAINTY
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+In spite of their own entire conviction the story told the next day by
+Polly and Betty to the various members of the Ashton household was
+received with little credulity.  Even Mrs. Ashton was inclined to be
+skeptical after finding that nothing in the big house had been stolen
+or even disarranged.  There was no window that had been pried open and
+no door left unlocked.  Then why, even if the robber had entered the
+house by some mysterious process of his own, had he gone away again
+empty-handed?  There were many pieces of valuable silver in the lower
+part of the establishment, pictures, even single ornaments that could
+be sold for fair sums of money.  Therefore why climb to the second
+story and enter the girls' room first?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Although Betty and Polly were too deeply offended by the suggestion to
+allow it to be freely discussed, Miss McMurtry's idea that they had had
+a kind of sympathetic nightmare, or at least a mutual hallucination,
+was the most commonly accepted theory.  It was an extremely annoying
+point of view to both the girls, of course, but as they had nothing to
+disprove it, they were obliged after several futile arguments to let
+the matter rest.  Naturally their Camp Fire friends were delightfully
+thrilled by the anecdote, but as it was always received either with
+open or carefully concealed disbelief, after a few days neither Polly
+nor Betty cared to speak of it except to each other.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was one person, however, who, whether or not he believed the
+truth of their story, at least accepted it with extreme seriousness.
+And it was to him that Polly O'Neill made a determined effort to be the
+first narrator of their experience.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Anthony Graham was in the habit of getting up earlier than any one else
+in the Ashton house and had of course disappeared hours before either
+of the girls awakened the morning after their nearly sleepless night.
+However, he was accustomed to returning to his small room in the third
+story at about half-past five o'clock every afternoon, when his work
+for the day was over, in order to change his clothes for the evening.
+So at about this time Polly found it convenient to be in the hallway
+leading to his room and to be there alone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As he walked toward her unconscious of her presence, in spite of her
+prejudice against him she could not fail to see how much the young man
+had improved.  He was hardly recognizable as the boy with whom they had
+had the encounter in the woods a little more than a year before.  He
+was shabby enough and as lean as a young animal that has had too much
+exercise and too little food.  His face was serious, almost sad;
+nevertheless Polly had no intention of not pursuing her investigation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had seated herself on a narrow window ledge and was presumably
+peering out at the trees in the garden.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As he caught sight of her the young man started with a perfectly
+natural surprise.  For although Polly had been in the same house with
+him now for a number of weeks, they had not seen each other more than
+half a dozen times and had only talked together once when Betty had
+made a point of introducing them as though they had never met before.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Perhaps some recollection of their original coming together was in
+Anthony's memory, for he blushed a kind of dull brick red, when Polly,
+turning deliberately from her window seat, said: "Mr. Graham, I wonder
+if you would mind giving me a minute of your time.  There is something
+I wish to tell you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Certainly," he answered and then stood fingering his hat in the same
+awkward fashion that he had employed in his Thanksgiving visit to
+Betty, yet regarding the girl herself with a totally different
+sensation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For instinctively Anthony Graham recognized that Polly O'Neill was or
+might become his enemy.  Not that she would do him any wrong, but that
+if ever he was able to set out to accomplish the desire of his heart,
+the weight of her influence and feeling would be against him.  And he
+did not underestimate the compelling power of a nature like Polly's.
+She was wayward, high tempered, sometimes appearing unreliable and
+almost unloving.  Yet this last fact was never true of her.  It was
+only that her personality was of the kind that can want but one thing
+at a time with all the passion and force of which it is capable.  And
+pursuing this desire, she might seem to forget her other impulses.
+Polly, however, never did put aside her few really vital affections.
+She and Betty Ashton might quarrel, might continue to disagree as they
+had so often done in the past; yet Betty's welfare and happiness would
+always be of intense concern to her friend.  More because of the
+quality of her imagination than from any single witnessed fact, Polly
+had lately suspected that Anthony might learn to care more for her
+friend than would be comfortable for anybody concerned in the affair.
+And undoubtedly the young man had once been a thief if intention
+counted.  Therefore he might be a thief again, and in any case probably
+needed to be forewarned of a number of things.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There was a burglar in our room last night," Polly began, wasting no
+time in preliminaries, but keeping her blue eyes fixed so directly upon
+Anthony's that they were like blue flames.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Even before he could reply the young man wondered how there could be
+people who thought this girl beautiful or even pretty.  It was true
+that at times her eyes were strangely magnetic, that her hair was
+always black with that peculiar almost dead luster, and her lips like
+two fine scarlet lines.  Yet she was always too thin, her chin too
+pointed and her cheekbones too high to touch any of his ideals of
+beauty.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I&mdash;I am sorry.  That is&mdash;what <I>do you mean</I>?" the young fellow
+stammered stupidly.  And all at once the scowl gathered upon his face
+that Betty Ashton had once misunderstood.  It was a black, ugly look,
+and in this case certainly was inspired by the impression that because
+of his former misdeed, Polly might now be suspecting him of another.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And she left him no room for doubt.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I am not exactly accusing you," she remarked coolly, "for I
+presume that would hardly be fair.  But I am not going to pretend that
+I feel as much confidence in you as I do in the people against whom I
+know nothing.  I can't.  Perhaps I may some day when you have made
+good, but it is a little too soon to expect it of me, as I am not an
+idealist like some girls.  So last night, though we did not have any
+reason to suspect that the person who entered our room and then stole
+out again without our ever really seeing him or her had anything to do
+with you, I must confess I did think of you.  Because, though it is
+just as well not to talk about it, there is no question but that the
+intruder was already living in this house.  No one came in from the
+outside.  So you see it is like this: I don't begin to say that it was
+you, but I am going to be on the watch and it is just as fair to warn
+you openly as to suspect you in secret.  Then there is another thing.
+Personally I don't believe we had a ghostly visitant, as Betty is
+inclined to think because of the mystery of that particular room.  So
+suppose we take it for granted that you had nothing to do with our
+experience, then will you help Betty and me to find out who or what it
+was?  We do not want to create too much disturbance over it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just how many varying emotions had passed through Anthony Graham's mind
+during Polly's amazing speech, it would be difficult to express.  He
+was bitterly angry of course, deeply wounded and resentful, and yet he
+could not but have a certain respect for the girl's outspokenness, for
+her kind of brutal courage.  Certainly he was given notice not to
+repeat his offense, if offense he had committed.  And as proof of his
+own innocence it might be as wise for him to discover the real offender.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Anthony kept a hold on himself by a fine effort of self-control.  The
+truth was that he and Polly O'Neill were not altogether unlike in
+disposition, and he had a temper and a will to match with hers.
+Notwithstanding, he appreciated that this was not the occasion for
+revealing weakness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Therefore he merely bowed with such quiet courtesy that Polly was
+secretly astonished.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are unfair in suspecting me of having violated Mrs. Ashton's
+confidence simply because I once tried to commit a theft.  Though of
+course I know that most people would feel just as you do.  Does
+Betty&mdash;does Miss Ashton&mdash;&mdash;" he inquired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly frowned.  "No," she responded curtly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then will you tell her, please, that you have confided what has
+happened to me and that I will do my best to ferret out the mystery."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Anthony walked past and into his own room, closing the door
+noiselessly behind him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With a shrug of her thin shoulders Polly stood for another moment
+regarding the shut door.  "I am sorry to say it, but he has behaved a
+great deal better than I expected," she thought to herself with a smile
+at her own expense.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap19"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XIX
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+AN UNSPOKEN POSSIBILITY
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+The two friends were walking home from school together about ten days
+later.  They had both stayed until almost dusk engaged in different
+pursuits.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty was doing some extra studying with Miss McMurtry, as she had
+missed so much time and science was always her weakest point; while
+Polly had been having an hour's quiet talk with her former elocution
+teacher, Miss Adams.  Probably she was the one person in Woodford,
+excepting Betty, who sympathized in the least with Polly in her
+escapade.  Or if she did not exactly sympathize with her, she was sorry
+for the retribution that she had brought upon herself.  For Mrs.
+Wharton had decreed that her daughter was not to leave Woodford again
+and was not even to be permitted to study anything in the village with
+the view of its being useful to her later in a stage career.  The
+subject was to be entirely tabooed until Polly reached twenty-one, when
+if she were of the same mind, she might choose her own future.  Of
+course to an impatient nature three years and a few months over seemed
+like an eternity, and except for Betty's sympathy and her frequent
+talks with Miss Adams and the latter's accounts of her great cousin,
+Margaret Adams, Polly believed existence would have been unendurable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was in such a state of excitement now over something which Miss
+Adams had been recently telling her, that at first she hardly heard
+what Betty was trying to say.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have her permission to tell you, Polly dear, because she wishes to
+have your advice, as you have more imagination about getting out of
+difficulties than the rest of us; but you have to promise first never
+to mention it to anybody, not to a single other member of the Camp Fire
+Club or to Rose or even Donna."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly laughed, putting her arm lightly across Betty Ashton's shoulder.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What are you talking about, child?" she demanded.  "I don't
+particularly like that suggestion of my talent for getting out of
+scrapes; but if the scrape has anything to do with Betty Ashton, then
+all my talent is at her disposal, of course."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But it has nothing to do with me, at least not in the way you mean,"
+the other girl replied, too much in earnest to be amused even for the
+moment.  "It has to do with a girl whom you have never liked very much
+and she has never liked you.  But she has been my friend and I do care
+for her.  And moreover she is a member of our Sunrise Hill Camp Fire
+Club and we promised to live up to Sylvia's motion."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Edith Norton?" Polly queried.  "She must be in trouble if she is
+willing to confide in me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Betty's expression suddenly silenced her.  Always Betty Ashton had
+been the most popular among her special group of Camp Fire girls.  At
+first chiefly for her beauty, her wealth, the prominent position of her
+family and for her own generosity and charm.  More recently, however,
+since the girl had met her own disasters so courageously, a new element
+had come into her influence and the affection she inspired.  It was a
+quality that Polly with all her cleverness would never create, one of
+steadfastness under fire.  Perhaps it was one of the last
+characteristics that one might have looked for in the early days of the
+Princess.  And yet it will always be found in truly aristocratic
+natures.  When life is flowing smoothly, when the days go by with no
+special demands made upon them, these persons may have many little
+weaknesses.  Yet when the special occasion arises theirs is the
+faithfulness and fortitude.  So while Betty had neither the sound
+judgment of Sylvia Wharton nor the brilliant fancy of Polly, it was to
+her that the other girls usually made their first appeal in any dilemma
+or distress.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At this moment if they had not been together on the street Polly would
+have liked to embrace her.  The cold air had brought Betty's color
+back; she still wore the little lace cap under her old fur hat, but the
+edging made a lovely frame for her face, and her hair was already
+growing so that the curls showed underneath, like a baby's.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, it is Edith," Betty answered seriously.  "And she is in a
+difficulty that you could never have imagined of one of our Camp Fire
+girls.  You know she has been going a good deal with that man whom none
+of us like until she thinks she is really in love with him.  And it
+seems that Edith believes that he does not care a great deal about her.
+So she, poor thing, has been trying her best to make him care.  She has
+bought herself a lot of clothes that she cannot afford, for you know
+she gets such a small salary at the shop where she works."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is that all?" Polly demanded.  "It is awfully foolish of her, of
+course, to be so extravagant, but it isn't such a dreadful crime.  And
+as I suppose she has charged what she got, she can just save up and pay
+back her bills by degrees."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty shook her head.  "Don't be a goose, dear.  Edith can't charge
+things in Woodford.  She hasn't any credit in the shops like your
+mother and mine have.  She is only a poor girl working for her own
+support, with her family not living here and with no position when they
+were.  No, you see she borrowed the money from the woman she was
+working for without telling her.  She meant to pay it back of course,
+only, only&mdash;&mdash;"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You mean she stole it from her?" Polly exclaimed in a hushed tone.
+This was a good deal worse than anything which she had anticipated.
+She had always considered Edith Norton foolish and vain; but then
+surely the Camp Fire had helped her, had given her the ideals and the
+training that she had never learned at home.  Betty was crying so
+bitterly and so openly that Polly felt she must comfort her friend
+first before criticising or attempting to suggest a solution to the
+other girl's problem.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But, dear, if you wish Edith's trouble kept a secret, you must not
+weep over her, just as you get home," she protested.  "Don't you know
+that everybody in the house will be demanding to know what the matter
+is at once, and the Professor can hardly be kept from weeping with you?
+I can't think of anything to suggest to Edith except that she confess
+what she has done and ask Madame to let her return the money by working
+for it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I told her that, but she did not believe that she would be forgiven,"
+Betty explained.  "Oh, if I only had just a little of the money I used
+to throw away!  I don't mind being poor so much myself, Polly; it is
+when I so want to do for other people."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You don't have to tell me that, Princess," her friend replied quietly.
+"But, dear, this time I am glad you have not the money.  Because you
+know it would not be right for you just to give Edith the money and
+have her give it back without any one's knowing.  At least, I don't
+quite think so.  And yet I am awfully sorry that Edith and I should
+both in our different ways have broken our Camp Fire law.  And I will
+do anything I can think of to help her.  Do you know, dear, how long
+she has been in this difficulty?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I think about two weeks," Betty answered.  "But she only confided
+in me yesterday.  It seems that she has tried several ways of getting
+the money and has attempted to borrow it.  She thought maybe I could
+lend it to her, and I may be able to later on, only I would have to
+tell mother some reason why I needed twenty-five dollars all of a
+sudden from our small supply."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, you must not.  Maybe I may be able to help.  Or we may persuade
+Edith to confess.  I believe she will when she thinks more about our
+old Camp Fire teachings.  Anyhow, as we are at home now, let us wait
+and talk it all over again tonight after we get to bed.  It is then, of
+course, that I do my most brilliant thinking."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So with this in mind, obliterating all other thoughts at their hour of
+retiring, for the first evening since their fright ten days before,
+neither Polly nor Betty remembered the locking of their outside door
+upon getting into bed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And this time it was Polly O'Neill who was aroused first a short while
+after midnight by the slow turning of their doorknob and then the sense
+of an almost noiseless figure entering their bedroom.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Immediately she awoke Betty by suddenly calling her name aloud, and at
+the same instant sprang out of bed, again touching the electric button
+and flooding the room with revealing light.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap20"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XX
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+THE BEGINNING OF LIGHT
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+"Why, why!" exclaimed Polly in surprise  and  consternation, standing
+perfectly still with her hand upraised toward the light, too puzzled to
+let it drop down at her side.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But with a little, warning cry Betty had called to her and almost at
+the same moment was across the room, with her arms about a tall, slight
+figure.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mother, mother," she whispered quietly, "wake up.  You have gotten up
+out of your bed and wandered into Polly's and my room.  And you have
+frightened us nearly to death!  Dear me, you have not walked in your
+sleep for years, have you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At Betty's first words following the stream of light, Mrs. Ashton had
+opened her eyes with returning consciousness until now she appeared
+almost entirely wide awake.  And an expression both of fear and
+annoyance crossed her face.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You poor children, so I am your ghost and your burglar," she declared,
+"and I believed it was you who were having nightmares!  I am awfully
+sorry.  Betty knows I used to have this unfortunate habit of strolling
+about the house in my sleep long ago.  But I am quite sure that I have
+not done it for several years now.  The truth is I have not yet gotten
+over the nervous shock of Betty's being brought home to me and my not
+knowing how seriously she was injured for such a time; it seemed an
+eternity."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty had thrown a shawl over her mother's shoulders, as she was clad
+only in her night-dress, and she and Polly slipped into their dressing
+gowns.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wasn't it odd, though, mother, your coming in here both times?  I
+wonder if you had me on your mind and wanted to see how I was.  But you
+did not seem to.  You kept groping your way toward that old closet as
+though you wished to rummage about in it.  But do come and let me take
+you back to bed now, and I will stay with you so you will behave
+yourself and give Polly a chance to rest."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For quite five minutes after the two had gone, Polly lay awake.  There
+were really so many things to consider, because, of course, when one
+has too active an imagination it is apt to lead one into trouble.
+First, she must apologize to Anthony Graham for her totally unfounded
+suspicion of him.  And then, thank Heaven, she had not breathed the
+suggestion aloud!  Yet just for a moment she had wondered if Edith
+Norton could have&mdash;but it was not true and of course never could have
+been.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then a third idea.  What could be hidden away in that old closet of so
+great value or interest that Mrs. Ashton turned toward it in her
+sleeping hours, when her subconscious mind must be directing her
+footsteps?   No wonder that Betty was puzzled and annoyed over the
+secrets of the old room.  Naturally as a visitor in the Ashton home it
+would be exceedingly bad manners, if nothing worse, for her to try to
+find out anything that her hostess wished to keep concealed.  Yet just
+as Polly lost her train of thought she remembered wishing that Betty
+might make the discovery for herself, since most certainly then she
+would confide in her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next day being Friday, Polly went to her own home to spend the
+week-end.  And quite by accident she and Mollie came in together for a
+few moments on Sunday afternoon and went directly to Betty's room
+without letting her know of their approach.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As they knocked and had no answer, Polly, feeling entirely at home,
+pushed the door open.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Betty, child, don't you want to see us?" she demanded.  "I know I
+promised to give you a rest until Monday, but Mollie and I could not
+bear to spend a whole Sunday afternoon without you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And at this, Betty Ashton appeared from the darkness of the big closet
+at the farthest end of her bedroom.  She wore a lavender cashmere frock
+with a broad velvet belt and a lace cap with lavender ribbons.  But the
+cap was much awry, so that her hair was tumbled carelessly over her
+forehead, even showing the slight scar underneath, which usually she
+was so careful to hide, and her cheeks were a good deal flushed.  There
+was no doubt that she was greatly interested or excited over something.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mollie and Polly, I am glad," she avowed.  "I was just needing some
+one to talk to and to ask questions of most dreadfully.  Mother has
+gone out driving this afternoon, and as I was alone it occurred to me
+it might be fun to rummage about in this old closet and see whether it
+really concealed any treasures.  After our belief that a burglar was
+trying to enter it, I thought it might be just as well for me to find
+out what it contained."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Does your mother know?" Polly inquired, and could hardly have
+explained to herself just why she asked the question.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No.  I did not think of investigating it before she left.  But of
+course she won't care.  Why should she?  The boxes have nothing in them
+but old books and rubbish.  But this trunk&mdash;I can't quite understand
+about some of the things I have found in it.  Maybe you can help me
+guess."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And before either of the other girls knew what she intended doing,
+Betty was dragging the shaky trunk out of the closet into the greater
+brightness of the room, Mollie rushing to her assistance as soon as
+possible.  Yet for some reason unknown to herself, Polly hesitated.
+She did not even move forward when Betty and Mollie dropped down on
+their knees before it, although she did observe that the trunk was
+locked, but that the hinges at the back had rusted and fallen off, so
+that Betty had gotten into it in that way.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Evidently the things at the top had already been taken out inside the
+closet, for Betty was now reaching down toward the bottom and bringing
+out what looked like a trousseau of baby clothes&mdash;her own or Dick's,
+they could not yet tell which.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The little dresses were yellow and fragile with age; the long blue coat
+had faded; most of the little shoes and flannels had been worn.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wish you would not look through those things until your mother gets
+back, Betty," Polly said rather irritably.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But both her sister and friend glanced up at her in surprise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What is the possible harm?  Mother couldn't mind.  There is certainly
+no reason why I should not look at my own clothes or at Dick's.  It's
+queer I never happen to have seen them before."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Did your mother never have any other children, Betty?" Mollie
+inquired, and the other girl shook her head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly had come over now and was standing near them by the edge of the
+trunk and looking down inside it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Of course what Betty was doing must seem to her perfectly right or else
+she would never have thought of doing it; yet Polly could not help
+feeling a certain distaste for the whole proceeding.  Old possessions
+were always kind of uncanny and uncomfortable to her temperament; they
+held too poignant a suggestion of death, of the passing of time and of
+almost forgotten memories.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty and Mollie had a differently romantic point of view.  And to both
+of them, being essentially feminine, the delicate, exquisite baby
+apparel made a strongly sentimental appeal.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Suddenly, with a little cry of surprise and amusement, Betty picked up
+a small frock which must have been made for a child of about a year
+old, that was curiously different from the others.  While they had been
+of sheer lawns and expensive laces, this was a perfectly
+straight-up-and-down garment of coarse check gingham of the cheapest
+kind and attached to it were a pair of rough little shoes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wonder how in the world these ever got in here or why mother has
+preserved them so carefully.  She has a perfect horror of cheap
+things," Betty began in a half-puzzled and half-humorous fashion,
+holding the poor little baby dress up to the light and giving it a
+shake.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Stooping, Mollie picked up something that must have fallen from one of
+the shoes.  It was an old tintype picture of a comparatively young man
+with a baby in his arms and a little girl pressing close up against his
+knee.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mollie was looking at it with a slightly bewildered expression when
+Polly came up and glanced over her shoulder.  And instantly Polly's
+face grew white; however, it was a trick of hers when anything
+surprised or annoyed her.  And at the moment she had a strong impulse
+to take the picture from Mollie's hands and tear it into a hundred
+pieces before Betty Ashton should have a chance to see it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Notwithstanding, Betty had already joined them and was apparently as
+much perplexed as Mollie.  She took the photograph nearer to the window.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I declare this looks like Esther when she was a little girl and
+Professor Crippen.  I believe he did tell me there was another child
+that somebody had adopted and who did not know he was her father.  I
+suppose Esther must have asked mother to take care of these things for
+her.  It is queer that she never thought of speaking of them to me.  I
+must write her I have seen them, for I should not wish her to feel I
+had been prying," Betty finished, going back to the trunk and putting
+the little things carefully away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The weight that had gathered pressingly in the neighborhood of Polly's
+heart in the past thirty seconds now lifted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, and do close up that tiresome trunk at once Betty Ashton, or I am
+going home," Polly scolded.  "It bores me dreadfully to have you and
+Mollie poking in there when we might be talking."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But Betty paid no heed to her, for she had found another photograph of
+a different character.  It was a picture of another baby, a beautiful
+miniature so delicately tinted that the colors were almost like life.
+And the child's face was very like Mrs. Ashton's, the same flaxen hair
+and light blue eyes.  And it bore no possible resemblance either to
+Richard Ashton or to Betty.  However, there was no reason to consider
+its being either one of them, for it was plainly marked on the back,
+"Phyllis Ashton," and then had the date of the birth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty offered no comment and expressed no wonder, although she let both
+her friends look at the picture, still holding it in her own hands.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I thought you said your mother had only two children, you and
+Dick," Mollie declared, and Polly would have liked to shake her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I did think so until now," the third girl replied.  And placing
+her picture back in the trunk, she closed the lid, still leaving the
+trunk in the center of the room, in spite of the fact that both her
+friends insisted on helping her with it into the closet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then Betty began making tea on her alcohol lamp and talking of other
+things; only Polly could see that her mind was not in the least upon
+what she was saying, but that she was thinking of something else every
+possible second.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Whether to go or to stay with her friend was Polly's present
+indecision.  However, she and Molly remained until Mrs. Ashton had
+returned from her drive and Betty went into her mother's room to assist
+in taking off her wraps.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap21"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXI
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+BETTY FINDS OUT
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+It was Monday afternoon and the March weather held an alluring
+suggestion of spring.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Running along the street with her red coat scarcely fastened and her
+hat at a totally wrong angle upon her head, Polly O'Neill showed no
+concern for exterior conditions.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Finding the Ashton front door unlocked she entered without stopping to
+ring the bell, and made straight, not for Betty's, but for Mrs.
+Ashton's bedroom.  She found her lying upon the bed, though at her
+visitor's entrance she sat up, appearing quite ill.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"O Mrs. Ashton, why didn't Betty come to school today?  Where is she?
+Has anything happened?  I was dreadfully worried when I found she was
+not at any of her classes, and then when I asked Miss McMurtry whether
+anything was the matter, she was so queer and mysterious.  And when I
+said I was going to leave school and come here at once, she said that I
+had better not, that Betty had specially asked to be alone and that
+even you had not seen her this morning.  Donna behaved just as though
+she knew something about my beloved Betty that I don't.  And it is not
+fair.  I am sure Betty would wish me to know.  Where is she?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sit down, Polly," Mrs. Ashton returned, getting up from the bed and
+taking a seat opposite.  "I don't know where Betty is just now and I am
+very uneasy and very unhappy about her.  The poor child has had so many
+things happen in the past year, after being spoiled in every possible
+way up till then.  She was in her own room most of the morning, but
+about two hours ago sent word to me that she was going out and that I
+was not to be alarmed if she did not return for some little time.  I
+might as well tell you our secret, dear.  I suppose there is no way now
+to keep people from knowing it eventually and perhaps we have been
+unkind and unwise in concealing it from Betty so long.  I wonder if you
+have ever dreamed that Betty is Esther Crippen's sister?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly gasped.  No, she had not dreamed it.  If the suspicion had ever
+entered her mind, she had put it from her as a self-evident absurdity.
+Her beautiful, exquisite Princess and Esther and Herr Crippen!  It was
+an impossible association of ideas and of people.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But it can't be true, Mrs. Ashton," she argued almost angrily, feeling
+that the room was whirling about and that she was almost ill from the
+surprise and shock.  And if this was her sensation, what could Betty's
+have been!  "Think how lovely Betty is and how utterly unlike either of
+them.  Besides, why have we never known and how did you happen to do
+it?"  Polly dropped her face in her two hands.  She so very seldom
+cried that the effort always hurt her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is a tragic story, dear, and one we have never liked to talk about
+for all our sakes," Mrs. Ashton replied, showing more self-control than
+Polly had ever seen her display before.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Very many years ago I had a baby named Phyllis.  Betty tells me that
+you too saw her picture in the old trunk.  Well, Dick was a little boy
+of about seven, and by some dreadful accident found a loaded pistol in
+his father's desk and came running into the big back room with it,
+which in those days was the baby's nursery.  You can imagine what
+happened without my telling you.  Dick was a child, and yet the horror
+of it has altered his entire nature and life.  He has always been
+serious and over-conscientious, always anxious to devote his life to
+the service of other people as a reparation for a tragedy which was
+never in the least his fault.  It was therefore as much for Dick's sake
+as for mine that Mr. Ashton persuaded us to adopt a baby in Phyllis'
+place.  So we drove out to the asylum together one day, with our minds
+not made up and there&mdash;there we found our adored Betty.  Herr Crippen
+had just left his two children to be cared for, and Betty was only a
+baby.  But she was the most exquisite little thing you can imagine, the
+same lovely auburn hair and big serious gray eyes.  Dick adored her
+from the moment that she put her arms about his neck and would not let
+go when the time came for us to return home.  We have always loved her
+since, Polly, as well as if she had been our own baby&mdash;better I almost
+think.  You know what she is, so there is little use for me to say
+it&mdash;'Our Princess', dear.  I have always loved your name and the other
+girls' for her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But Herr Crippen and Esther&mdash;they are so plain, and except for their
+gifts, why, compared to Betty they seem so&mdash;so ordinary," Polly
+protested.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you must remember that there was a mother, too, and that Herr
+Crippen has said she was an American and very lovely.  I believe her
+family would have nothing more to do with her because she married a
+German musician.  And then, you see, child, Betty has had many
+advantages that Esther has not had.  It was because Dick and I began
+slowly to realize that perhaps we had been cruel to Esther in depriving
+her of her little sister that we finally asked her to come here and
+live as a kind of companion to Betty.  It was a long-delayed kindness
+and yet Esther has very nobly repaid us; for it seems that when Herr
+Crippen returned and claimed Esther as his daughter, Esther learned
+then of Betty's relation to them and it was she who insisted that her
+father make no sign, realizing how entirely Betty's devotion was given
+to Dick and Mr. Ashton and to me, even to this old home, which has been
+her pride for so long."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Poor, poor little Princess!  It will almost break her heart," Polly
+murmured.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But although Mrs. Ashton wiped a few tears from her eyes, she shook her
+head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Some day you will find out that hearts are harder to break than you
+now believe.  I would almost have given my life to have spared Betty
+this knowledge, and yet some day she must realize that we love her as
+we have always done and that love is the only thing that greatly
+counts, after all.  There is no reason why Betty should feel any shame
+in her relation to Herr Crippen; he has been unfortunate, but there is
+nothing else against him.  And Esther is a remarkable girl."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I know.  But what made Betty suspect?  How did she find all this
+out?" Polly queried.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Betty told me of her discoveries in the old trunk and asked me a
+number of questions.  I was confused; I am not in the least sure how I
+answered them.  Anyhow, she became suspicious and went to Herr Crippen
+and then to Miss McMurtry, who, it seems, was in Esther's and her
+father's confidence.  They gave the child no satisfaction, but only
+made her the more uneasy and distressed, until finally Betty remembered
+the sealed envelope which Mr. Ashton had always made her keep in her
+box of valuable papers.  Possibly she has told you that the envelope
+was only to be opened when she should come to some crisis in her life
+and need advice or information.  Betty opened the envelope and it
+contained the papers proving her legal adoption by us and her right in
+the equal division of whatever property either Mr. Ashton or I might
+have.  Now, Polly, that is all," Mrs. Ashton concluded.  "But I feel
+that if Betty does not soon come to me and put her arms about me and
+call me 'mother' as she always has, that I shan't be able to bear
+things either.  Won't you find her and bring her here to me?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And Polly, glad to be away to battle with her own emotions, kissed her
+older friend and vanished.  But Betty was not in her room, and as there
+seemed to be no clue to work upon, it was difficult to decide just
+where she should begin the search.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap22"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXII
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+SUNRISE CABIN
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+Betty was not with any one of their acquaintances, for Polly telephoned
+everybody they knew before leaving the Ashton house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then a possibility suddenly dawning upon her, she hurried forth,
+feeling that anything was better than remaining longer indoors.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All of the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire girls were in the habit of taking
+frequent walks to their forsaken log cabin.  And as Betty wished to be
+alone and especially needed the strength and consolation that its happy
+memories could give her, probably she had gone out there.  Under most
+circumstances Polly would have respected her friend's desire for
+solitude, but Betty must already have been at the cabin for some time
+by herself and the dusk would soon come down upon her and she would be
+hurt and lonely, with all her familiar world fallen about her feet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+No one else must learn of her pilgrimage, since Betty might forgive her
+presence and yet could not rally to meet the astonishment and sympathy
+of any other of her friends.  So Polly told several impatient fibs to
+the persons who insisted upon learning where she intended going, before
+she was able to get outside of Woodford and into the blessed solitude
+of the country lanes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The air was colder by this time and light flurries of snow kept
+blinding her eyes as she hurried along.  However, she had not so
+forgotten her training in woodcraft as not to recognize signs of
+Betty's having preceded her along almost the same route; for here and
+there, where the earth had thawed in the midday warmth, there were
+impressions of the Princess' shoes.  And she even picked up a small
+crushed handkerchief which had been dropped by the way.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Therefore in spite of her depression over Mrs. Ashton's information,
+Polly was beginning to get a kind of hold upon herself.  For it was her
+place, if she possibly could manage it, to persuade Betty that, after
+all, life was not so utterly changed by yesterday's discovery.  If Mrs.
+Ashton and Dick were not her own mother and brother, they themselves
+knew no difference.  And there would be no change in her friends'
+affections.  Then, she had gained Esther as a sister, Esther who was so
+big in her nature, so unselfish and fine.  No wonder she had always
+seemed to care for Betty with a devotion no one of them could explain.
+And how hard it must have been loving her as she did to have made no
+claim upon her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hello, Miss Polly," an unexpected voice cried out, and to Polly's
+utter vexation she beheld Billy Webster coming toward her from the path
+that led through his father's woods.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She bowed coldly, hoping that her coldness might be her salvation,
+since she did not wish to waste time in conversation with him, nor to
+explain why she was in such a hurry to go on with her walk.  But Billy
+was apparently not influenced by Polly's present attitude, being too
+accustomed to her moods.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"May I walk along with you?" he inquired politely enough.  "I was just
+out for exercise, with no special place in mind where I wished to go,
+and I should ever so much rather have you as a companion."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was on the tip of Polly's tongue to exclaim, "But I would so much
+rather not have you!"  However, she suddenly recalled having promised
+Mollie to be as polite to Billy as she could and not to bear malice any
+longer.  So she merely shook her head.  "I am sorry, but I am in a
+great hurry," she explained.  "For you see I came out with a very
+special place in mind to which I wish to go immediately."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Billy laughed, rather a big, splendid, open-hearted laugh.  Polly was
+amusing, in no matter what temper she might happen to be.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I won't interfere with your destination and I certainly can manage
+to walk as fast as you can," he announced calmly, keeping close to the
+girl's side, although her rapid walking had developed almost into a
+run, and she was nearly out of breath.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-245"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-245.jpg" ALT="&quot;I won't interfere with your destination&quot;" BORDER="2" WIDTH="354" HEIGHT="598">
+<H3 CLASS="h3center" STYLE="width: 354px">
+&quot;I won't interfere with your destination&quot;
+</H3>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+Well, if she could not outwalk him and could not manage to get rid of
+him in any other way, Polly decided that she would at least keep
+perfectly silent until he had the sense to go away of his own accord.
+It was still some distance before she could reach the cabin.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However, as Billy was doing a great deal of talking, he appeared not to
+be aware of her unusual silence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Look here, Miss Polly, I have been thinking of something for a long
+time&mdash;several months, in fact," he declared.  "And I have about come to
+the conclusion that maybe I was pretty domineering in the way in which
+I behaved to you in New York.  Of course I still consider that acting
+business a dreadful thing for you to have done which might have brought
+consequences that you could not imagine.  But I ought to have tried to
+persuade you to stop or to write your mother, and not to have bullied
+you.  I want you to believe, though, that it was because I like you so
+much that I went all to pieces over the idea of anything happening to
+you&mdash;your getting ill or somebody being rude to you.  Great Scott! but
+I am glad that you have given up that foolish idea of going upon the
+stage and have settled down quietly in Woodford!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Polly turned a pair of astonished blue eyes upon her companion, who
+happened at the moment to be gazing up toward the sky where the snow
+clouds were growing heavier.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are very kind to be interested in my welfare, I am sure," she
+replied, trying her best not to let sarcastic tones creep into her
+voice.  "And of course I realized that your friendship for Mollie and
+mother made you feel that you had the right to express your opinion
+very frankly to me.  But you are mistaken if you believe that I have
+given up my foolish notion of going upon the stage.  Of course I
+appreciate now that I was wrong in betraying mother's trust and in
+trying that experiment in acting without her consent.  So I have
+accepted my punishment and made my bargain.  But just the same, when I
+am twenty-one, I mean to try again with all my strength and power and
+to keep on trying until I ultimately succeed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Billy Webster closed his lips with a look of peculiar obstinacy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Three years is a long time," he answered, "and you might as well know
+that though I am fond of Mollie and always will be, it is you I really
+care about.  Oh yes, I realize that there are hours when I almost hate
+you, but that is because you dislike me and because I can't get you to
+do what I wish.  Still, you might as well understand that I intend
+doing everything in my power for the next three years to make you stay
+in Woodford when the time is up and to make you stay because you love
+me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And then before Polly was able to get her breath or to stamp her foot
+or in any possible way to relieve her feelings, the young man had
+marched away through an opening at one side of the path, without even
+stopping once to glance back at her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was out of the question then for Polly to decide whether she was the
+more angry, astonished or amused.  Of course it was absurd for Billy
+Webster to conceive of having any emotion for her except one of
+disapproval.  He was simply so obstinate and so sure of himself that he
+wanted to make her like him, because he knew that she almost hated him.
+And if it had not been for Mollie, she would have suffered no "almost"
+in her dislike.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Really the confusion and protest that the young man's words had
+awakened in her mind, coming on top of the disclosure about Betty, made
+Polly feel as if she had suddenly taken leave of her senses.  And as it
+is a rather good scheme when one is unable to think clearly, to give up
+thinking at all for the time being, the girl started running in the
+direction of the cabin, so fast that she had opportunity for no other
+impulse or impression except forcing herself to keep up the desired
+speed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+By a camp fire, which Betty had built for herself, Polly discovered her
+friend sitting on a stool with her elbow in her lap and her head
+resting on her hand.  She did not seem astonished or annoyed by her
+friend's entrance.  When Polly came forward and kissed her she merely
+said, "I am glad you know, Polly.  I hope you did not have a very cold
+walk.  It was not snowing when I came out."  Then she began piling more
+logs on her fire.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Later the two girls had an intimate talk.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is odd, Polly, but I don't feel as wretched as I should have
+expected I would," Betty explained, speaking as much to herself as to
+her companion.  "I think perhaps it is intended for me to have my
+illusions shattered earlier in life than other people have them&mdash;I
+think possibly because I have been vainer and more foolish.  At first I
+presume I used to have a kind of unconscious satisfaction in our having
+more money than other people and in being able to do almost anything
+for my friends that I wished.  Then when the money went away I thought,
+well, perhaps money does not make so much difference if one has an old
+family and a name of which one may be proud.  But in these last few
+hours, sitting here by myself I have begun to appreciate more fully
+what our Camp Fire organization is trying so hard to teach us.  It is
+that all we girls are alike in the essential things, only that some of
+us have been given better opportunities and more friends.  There is
+only one thing that really counts, I suppose, and that is not so much
+what other people do for us, as what we are able to do for ourselves,
+what kind of women we are able to grow into.  So you see that though I
+believe I was struggling to save the old Ashton house because all my
+distinguished ancestors had been living there for generation after
+generation and I wanted to have babies of my own to inherit it some
+day, now I am even happier because perhaps I have saved it for Dick and
+mother by my plan and maybe it will repay them a little for all they
+have done for me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't think the debt is on your side, dear," Polly returned loyally.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But already Betty had risen from her stool and was looking around for
+her cloak and cap.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let us hurry home now; we shall have a glorious walk!" she exclaimed.
+"I have been away from mother long enough and I do want to write to
+Esther.  She has got to come to see me for a few days, or else I am
+going to her.  Don't worry; I shall not forget the seven points of our
+Camp Fire star."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap23"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER XXIII
+</H3>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+FAREWELLS
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+One morning in May two months later two girls were in the
+much-discussed back bedroom overlooking the Ashton garden.  It was very
+much the same kind of cheerless day outdoors that it had been when they
+had first met each other after a lapse of many years.  And then of
+course neither one knew of the closeness of the tie between them.
+However, at the present moment they were busily engaged in packing two
+steamer trunks that were standing open before them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I never shall get all this stuff in if you don't come and help me,
+Esther," Betty protested in the spoiled fashion of an earlier time.
+And since Esther never would cease to believe that the whole world
+should be grateful to Betty for the honor of her presence in it, it is
+doubtful whether her methods of spoiling "The Princess" ever would be
+entirely given up.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sit down, dear, or else run and see Polly and Mollie and Mrs. Wharton
+for a few moments.  You are tired and I can finish putting the things
+in for you without any trouble.  Poor Polly is kind of pathetic these
+days, I think; she is so desperate over our going away and leaving her
+behind, and then, though she tries her best not to show it, she is
+jealous of our being so much together.  I am sorry for her, because it
+is pretty much the same way that I used to feel toward her.  And of
+course I have tried to show her that no one can take her place with
+you; but she is so low-spirited and so unlike herself that there is no
+convincing her of anything agreeable."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty had sunk into a low chair and was rocking thoughtfully back and
+forward knitting her brows.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mother and I both consider that Mrs. Wharton is making a mistake in
+not allowing Polly to leave Woodford for three years; for she will
+probably grow so tired of it by that time that she will never want to
+come home again&mdash;that is, if she goes on the stage.  When it was
+decided that we were to go abroad mother suggested to Mrs. Wharton that
+she let Polly come over and join us later.  She thought it would be
+very much more apt to distract her attention than if she stayed on here
+with nothing else to dream about."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And what did Mrs. Wharton answer?" Esther queried, turning from her
+own trunk and beginning to straighten out the confusion in her sister's.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, she wouldn't hear of it," Betty returned.  "So sometimes I feel
+pretty selfish at being so happy over our sailing.  But just think, we
+are going straight to Germany and dear old Dick!  It seems a hundred
+years since he went away.  How strangely things have turned out!  Here
+are Miss McMurtry and my new father getting married, when I have been
+predicting that they would, with no one believing me, ever since that
+evening at the cabin.  So they will be able to look after the house and
+let the people stay on in it just as if mother and I were here, and
+send us a check for the rent each month so that we will have enough to
+live upon.  But better than anything, Esther dear, is the wonderful
+chance you will have for your music.  You are going to study under one
+of the greatest teachers in the world and not because of what your own
+family believe about your talent, but because of what your teacher in
+New York wrote the Professor."  It was not often that Betty was able to
+speak of Herr Crippen as father; Mr. Ashton had been her father too
+long, and she had cared for him too much to be willing to give the
+title to any one else.  So "the Professor" and "Donna" were the names
+she ordinarily bestowed upon her new parents.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You must not expect too much of my singing, Betty," Esther replied in
+her same shy, nervous fashion.  "And, for goodness sake! don't write
+your brother Dick that my voice has improved, or he will be
+disappointed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty laughed teasingly.  "Oh, I have told him already that you were
+greater than Melba and Farrar rolled into one.  But never mind, Esther,
+he will soon find out the real truth for himself.  Isn't it too
+splendid how happy mother is over our plans!  She has not been so like
+herself since father's death.  And somehow instead of acting as if she
+had given me up to the Professor as a daughter, she behaves far more as
+if he had just presented her with you as well.  I believe she feels it
+helps to make up to you, Esther, for the years of loneliness&mdash;her being
+able now to chaperon you, when you so much need to have your big
+chance."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Esther was kneeling on the floor; but she turned her light blue eyes
+appealingly upon her sister and her lips quivered, revealing her one
+beautiful feature in the mobility of the lines of her mouth and in the
+whiteness of her teeth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You must not expect too much of me, little sister, will you?" she
+pleaded.  "You know I have only consented to father's making this big
+sacrifice for me so that we may all be abroad together, and you and
+Mrs. Ashton have the rest and change you so much need.  And then, of
+course, I may be able to learn to sing well enough some day to earn the
+money to buy you a Paris frock and hat," she ended with an attempt at
+lightness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+However, Betty was not deceived, and getting up from her rocking chair,
+she deliberately pushed Esther aside.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"For goodness sake! let me finish packing my own trunk, Esther
+Crippen," she commanded.  "Here I have been carefully trying to
+cultivate an angelic character ever since I became a Camp Fire girl,
+and in a few weeks of your spoiling you do away with the labor of
+years."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty therefore was not looking up when some one tiptoed quietly into
+the room, and, before she became conscious of her presence, dropped a
+bunch of May blossoms under her eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There are two automobiles waiting before your door at the present
+moment, children," Polly announced.  "And John Everett suggested that I
+tell you to get into your coats and hats at once.  He came home for the
+day; I've an idea he may have desired to say farewell to 'My Lady
+Betty,' but I was given no such information.  What I was told to say
+was that he and Meg were giving an automobile ride in your honor and
+that we were to end up by having our lunch at the cabin.  They have
+asked all the Camp Fire Club and some of John's friends, Billy
+Webster," and Polly's face expressed her chagrin.  "John has even
+invited Anthony Graham, and the poor fellow has fixed himself up until
+he is positively shining with cleanliness, though I am afraid he will
+be cold in that shabby overcoat of his."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While Polly was chattering, she was assisting Betty to slip into her
+new violet dress which had been made for the steamer crossing and
+happily was lying ready and spread out upon the bed.  And the next
+instant she had pinned Esther's new blue <I>crêpe de chine</I> blouse down
+in the back, hurried them both into their heavy coats and hats, and was
+ushering them out to their friends, who were impatiently awaiting their
+coming.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+No one of the little party forgot their May day together in the woods
+and at the Sunrise Hill cabin for a long time to come.  And among the
+many kind things that were said to her in farewell, it was curious that
+the speech made by Anthony Graham should make the deepest impression
+upon Betty Ashton's mind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He had asked her come away from her other friends for a few moments,
+and they had walked to the edge of the group of pines not far from the
+foot of Sunrise Hill.  It was almost sunset, for no one had thought of
+going home after the late luncheon was over.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty glanced about her rather wistfully.  This particular bit of
+country was dearer to her than any place in the world except her old
+home and yet she was leaving it for an unknown land, to be away she
+could not tell how long.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Miss Ashton," Anthony began, "there will probably be a good many
+changes in people and things before you come home again.  And I am
+hoping with all my strength that of the greatest changes will have
+taken place in me.  I mean that by that time you need not be ashamed of
+having befriended me.  It is pretty hard sometimes to climb a hill
+along with other people when you have started so much nearer the bottom
+than they have.  But I feel now that I have made at least a fair start.
+Judge Maynard told me yesterday that he believed I meant business and
+that he would teach me all the law he knew and that he would see that I
+wasn't far behind the fellows at the law schools when the time came for
+my examinations."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Betty's face glowed with interest and enthusiasm and she gave her two
+hands to the young man with the same friendliness which she had used in
+his first call upon her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am so glad, so glad!" she answered.  "But please don't speak of my
+feeling ashamed of you ever again.  I know I was rather horrid to you
+once and that afterwards you saved my life, or what perhaps means more
+than one's life.  Suppose we promise to repay our debts to each other
+in some entirely new way when we meet after my return."  Betty made her
+idle speech with no special meaning attached to it.  And although
+Anthony agreed in much the same manner, it was possibly fortunate that
+Betty did not observe his expression as he turned away and walked a few
+paces ahead of her, gazing up toward the summit of Sunrise Hill.  The
+golden disk of the sun was at this instant resting upon it like the
+crown of the world.  And to Anthony it seemed none too beautiful or too
+magnificent a gift to have laid at the feet of a gray-eyed Princess.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Voices were heard calling to them from the cabin, and a short while
+after good-nights were said and Sunrise Cabin was once more left to
+solitude and memories.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+<HR WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center">
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+The next volume of the Camp Fire Girls' Series will be known as "The
+Camp Fire Girls Across the Seas."  Several years will have intervened
+between it and the previous book and the girls will be introduced under
+very different influences and circumstances.  Just how many of them
+will have crossed the seas and for what purposes, and how the old Camp
+Fire influence will still follow them, it is the plan of this story to
+reveal.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR>
+<hr class="full" noshade>
+
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD***</p>
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+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World, by
+Margaret Vandercook
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World
+
+
+Author: Margaret Vandercook
+
+
+
+Release Date: October 10, 2007  [eBook #22938]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE OUTSIDE
+WORLD***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Al Haines
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 22938-h.htm or 22938-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/9/3/22938/22938-h/22938-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/2/9/3/22938/22938-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Cover artwork]
+
+
+THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD
+
+by
+
+MARGARET VANDERCOOK
+
+Author of "The Ranch Girls" Series, "The Red
+  Cross Girls" Series, etc.
+
+Illustrated
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: "Esther Crippen, that is the loveliest song in the
+world!"]
+
+
+
+Philadelphia
+The John C. Winston Co.
+Publishers
+
+Copyright 1914, by
+The John C. Winston Company
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+     I. "DO YOU REMEMBER ME?"
+    II. BETTY'S KNIGHT
+   III. HER PENSION
+    IV. TEMPTATION
+     V. THE WAY OF THE WILFUL
+    VI. ESTHER'S ROOM
+   VII. THE THREAT
+  VIII. PREPARATIONS FOB THE HOLIDAYS
+    IX. THE CASTLE OF LIFE
+     X. THE RECOGNITION
+    XI. SUNRISE CABIN AGAIN
+   XII. "LIFE'S LITTLE IRONIES"
+  XIII. THE INVALIDS
+   XIV. "WHICH COMES LIKE A BENEDICTION"
+    XV. SECRETS
+   XVI. THE LAW OF THE FIRE
+  XVII. A FIGURE IN THE NIGHT
+ XVIII. UNCERTAINTY
+   XIX. AN UNSPOKEN POSSIBILITY
+    XX. THE BEGINNING OF LIGHT
+   XXI. BETTY FINDS OUT
+  XXII. SUNRISE CABIN
+ XXIII. FAREWELLS
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"ESTHER CRIPPEN, THAT IS THE LOVELIEST SONG
+  IN THE WORLD!" . . . . . . _Frontispiece_
+
+"THERE ISN'T ANYTHING MUCH TO TELL"
+
+THE PROFESSOR HAD TO WIPE HIS GLASSES
+
+"I WON'T INTERFERE WITH YOUR DESTINATION"
+
+
+
+
+The Camp Fire Girls in the Outside World
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+"DO YOU REMEMBER ME?"
+
+Walking slowly down a broad stairway, a girl carried three old silver
+candlesticks in her hands.  And although the hallway was in
+semi-darkness, the candles had not yet been lighted.  It was a cold
+November afternoon and the great house was chill and silent.
+
+Entering the drawing room, she placed the candles upon the mantelpiece.
+Her breath was like a small gray cloud before her; and her dress, too,
+was the color of the mist and soft and clinging.
+
+"Work, health and love," she murmured quietly, striking a match and
+watching the candles flicker and flare until finally they burned with a
+steady glow.  "If one has these three things in life as I have, what
+else is worth worrying over?"  Then the sigh that came in answer to her
+own question almost extinguished the candle flames.
+
+"There are bills and boarders of course--too many of the first and at
+present none of the second," she added with a kind of whimsical smile.
+"But, oh dear, what a trying Thanksgiving day this has been, when even
+the Camp Fire ideals won't comfort me!  Dick 'way off in Germany, Polly
+and Esther studying in New York and me face to face with my failure to
+save the old house.  It is not worth while pretending; the house must
+be sold and mother and I shall have to find some other place to live.
+In the morning I will go and tell Judge Maynard that I give up."
+
+Sadly Betty Ashton glanced about the familiar room.  The portraits of
+her New England ancestors appeared to gaze coldly and reproachfully
+down upon her.  They had not been of the stuff of which failures are
+made.  Her grand piano was closed and dusty, the window blinds were
+partly pulled down, and although a fire was laid in the grate, it was
+not burning.  Dust, cold and an unaccustomed atmosphere of neglect
+enveloped everything.
+
+With a lifting of her head and a tightening of her lips that gave her
+face a new expression, the girl suddenly pulled open a table drawer and
+began fiercely to polish the top of the piano while she talked.
+
+"There is no reason why I should allow this place to look so dismal
+just because things have gone wrong with my efforts to keep boarders
+and continue my work at school.  As no one is coming to see me I can't
+afford a fire, but I'll open the piano and place Esther's song, 'The
+Soul's Desire,' on the music rack, just as though she were at home to
+sing it for me.  Dick's dull old books shall lie here on the table
+where he used to leave them, near this red rose that John Everett
+brought me this morning.  Somehow the rose makes me think of Polly.  It
+is so radiant.  How curious that certain persons suggest certain
+colors!  Now Polly is often pale as a ghost, and yet red always makes
+me recall her."
+
+A few moments afterwards and Betty moved toward the front window and
+stood there staring out into the street, too deep in thought to be
+actually conscious of what she was doing.
+
+She had changed in the past six months of struggle with poverty and
+work beyond her strength.  There were shadows under her gray eyes and
+worried lines about the corners of her mouth.  Instead of being slim as
+formerly, she was undeniably so thin that even the folds of her
+delicate crepe dress could not wholly disguise it.
+
+It was not that Mrs. Ashton and Betty had spent this lonely day in
+their old home, because their former friends had neglected them.
+Indeed, they had had invitations to Thanksgiving dinners from half a
+dozen sources.  But Mrs. Ashton had not been well in several months and
+was today too ill for her daughter to leave her.  The two women were
+now entirely alone in the house.  One by one their boarders had
+deserted them, and the previous week they had even felt compelled to
+give up the old cook, who had been in the service of the Ashton family
+for twenty years.
+
+At first Betty saw nothing to attract her attention in the street
+outside--not a single passer-by.  It was odd how quiet and cold the
+world seemed with her mother asleep in one of the far-away rooms
+upstairs and other persons evidently too much interested in indoor
+amusements to care for wandering through the dull town.
+
+In another instant, however, the girl's attention was caught by the
+appearance of a figure which seemed to spring up suddenly out of
+nowhere and to stand gazing intently toward the Ashton house.  It was
+almost dark, and yet Betty could distinguish a young man, roughly
+dressed, wearing no overcoat, with his coat collar turned up and a cap
+pulled down over his eyes.  Without being frightened, she was curious
+and interested.  Why should the man behave so queerly?  He now walked
+past the house and then turned and came back, not once but several
+times.  Evidently he had not observed the girl at the window.  At last
+however he gave up, and Betty believed that she saw him disappear
+behind the closed cottage of the O'Neills.  No longer entertained, she
+prepared to leave the drawing room.  It was too chilly to remain there
+any longer.  Moreover, studying the familiar objects she had loved so
+long only made the thought of their surrender more painful.  Betty once
+more faced her three candles.
+
+  "Be strong as the fagots are sturdy;
+  Be pure in your deepest desire;
+  Be true to the truth that is in you;"
+
+
+"And--follow the law of the fire," she repeated with a catch in her
+breath.  Then with greater strength and resolution in her face she blew
+out two of the candles, and picking up the third, started on her way
+upstairs.
+
+The next moment there came a quick, muffled ring at the front door bell.
+
+The girl hesitated; yet there was no one else in the house to answer
+the bell, and only a friend, she thought, could come at this hour.
+Shading her light from the wind with one hand she pulled open the door
+with the other, already smiling with pleasure at the idea of thus
+ending her loneliness.
+
+Close against the door she discovered the young man whom she had seen
+only a few moments before in the street.
+
+He did not speak nor move immediately.
+
+"What do you wish?" Betty demanded a trifle impatiently.  The fellow
+had both fists rammed deep into his pockets and had not the courtesy to
+remove his hat.  With a slight sense of uneasiness, Betty thought of
+closing the door.  The unexpected visitor kept edging closer toward her
+and was apparently fumbling for something in his coat.
+
+"Please tell me what it is you want at once," the girl repeated almost
+angrily.  "This is Mrs. Ashton's house if you are looking for it.  My
+mother and I are entirely alone."  Having made this speech Betty
+instantly recognized its stupidity and regretted it.
+
+However the young man had at last succeeded in removing a small oblong
+package from his pocket, which he silently thrust toward her.  On the
+wrapper in big letters, such as a child might have written, the girl
+was able to decipher her own name.  But while she was puzzling over it,
+and before she could thank the messenger, he had hurried off.
+
+Betty set her candle down on the lowest of the front steps and kneeling
+before it rapidly undid her parcel.  Inside the paper she discovered a
+crudely hand-carved wooden box, and opening the lid, a blank sheet of
+folded white paper.
+
+She shook the paper.  Had some one sent her a Thanksgiving present or
+was she being made the victim of a joke?  But from between the blank
+sheets something slowly fluttered to her feet.  And picking it up with
+a little cry of surprise Betty saw a crisp new ten dollar bill.
+
+Immediately her cheeks turned scarlet and her eyes filled with
+indignant tears.  Only by an effort of will could the tears be kept
+from falling.  Did any one of her friends consider her so
+poverty-stricken that it was necessary to send her money in this
+anonymous fashion?
+
+Scarcely waiting to think, Betty rushed out of the house and down the
+old paved brick walk out into the street.  For there might be a bare
+chance that the messenger was not yet out of sight.  Sure enough, there
+he was still loitering on the corner about half a block away.
+Bareheaded, and in her thin dress, with the money in her hand, the girl
+ran forward.  And actually as she reached the young man, she caught him
+fast by the sleeve.
+
+"Please, you must tell me who sent me this money or else take it back
+at once and say that though I am very much obliged I cannot receive a
+gift delivered in this secret fashion."
+
+The two young people were standing near an electric light so that they
+could now see each other plainly.  Betty observed a tall, overgrown boy
+with thin, straight features and clear hazel eyes, and now that his hat
+was removed, a mass of curly dark hair, which had been vainly smoothed
+down.
+
+"I can't take the money back, since it belongs to you," the young man
+answered awkwardly.
+
+Inside her Betty heard a small voice whispering: "If it only really
+did!"  For the ten dollars would buy Christmas presents for her mother,
+for Polly and Esther and others of her friends.  Nevertheless she shook
+her head.
+
+"The money cannot be mine and so you must return it."  Then finding
+that her insistence was failing to have any effect, she dropped the
+money on the ground at the young fellow's feet and walked away.
+
+"But, Miss Ashton," the stranger's voice argued, "please believe me
+when I say that this money is yours.  Oh, of course I don't mean this
+special ten dollar bill; for yours was spent nearly a year ago.  But at
+least the money represents the same amount."
+
+Betty paused and again faced the speaker.  There was sincerity in his
+tone--a determined appeal.  But what on earth could he be talking
+about?  He looked perfectly rational, although his statement was so
+extraordinary.
+
+"You don't recognize me and I am truly glad," the young man went on.
+"But can't you recall once having befriended a fellow when instead you
+ought to have sent him to jail?  He did not deserve your kindness then.
+He was actually trying to steal from you the money which you afterwards
+gave him of your own free will.  But he has tried since to be honest."
+
+He ceased abruptly.  For Betty's eyes were shining and she was
+thrusting her little cold hand into his big one.
+
+"You're not!" she exclaimed.
+
+"Yes I am," the boy returned.
+
+"Anthony Graham, Nan's brother?" Betty laughed happily.  "Then please
+give me back the money I refused.  I did not understand that you were
+returning the loan.  Of course I understand how you feel about it.  And
+do come back and into the house with me.  I so want you to tell me all
+about yourself.  I hope you have had splendid luck."
+
+The young man's shabby appearance did not suggest sudden riches.
+Nevertheless he smiled.
+
+For more than ever did Betty Ashton appear to him like the Princess of
+his dreams.  Only once before had he met her face to face.  And yet the
+vision had never left him.  He could still see the picture of a girl
+moving toward him, her face filled with shame--for him--and her eyes
+downcast; and thrusting into his clenched fist, which had so lately
+been raised to injure her, the money which had given him the desired
+opportunity for getting away from his old associations and beginning
+again.
+
+Enter her home and tell her of his struggle!  Anthony felt far more
+like kneeling in the dust at her feet.  Yet being a boy he could only
+blush and stammer without words to voice his gratitude.
+
+Betty was beginning to shiver.  "Please come, I am so lonely," she
+urged.  "I have had the horridest kind of a Thanksgiving day.  Only a
+little while ago I was having a hard time trying to remember the things
+that I have to be thankful for."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+BETTY'S KNIGHT
+
+The drawing room fire was soon
+crackling.  "It is so nice to feel
+I have the privilege of lighting it;
+I have been dying to for the past hour,
+but didn't think I could afford it without
+company," Betty confided, blowing at the
+flames.  "Do please get some chairs and
+let us draw up quite close.  It is so much
+pleasanter to talk that way."
+
+Yet Anthony Graham only stared without
+moving.  To think of a Princess speaking
+of not being able to afford so inexpensive a
+luxury as a fire.  Suddenly the young man
+longed to be able immediately to chop
+down an entire forest of trees and lay it as
+a thank offering before her.  Of course his
+sister Nan had written him of Mr. Ashton's
+death and of the change in the family
+fortunes, but to associate real poverty with
+his conception of Betty was impossible.
+Glancing uneasily about the great room it
+was good to see how beautiful it still
+looked, how perfect a setting for its young
+mistress.  So at least they were able to keep
+their handsome home.
+
+To the young man Betty Ashton now
+appeared more beautiful than his former
+impression of her.  For on the day of their
+original meeting she had worn a fur coat
+and a cap covering her hair and a portion
+of her face.  But now the three Camp
+Fire candles were once more burning,
+forming a kind of shining background for the
+girl's figure.  Her hair was a deep red
+brown, with bronze tones, the colors in the
+autumn woods.  There was no longer any
+sign of pallor or weariness in her cheeks,
+for pleasure and excitement had
+reawakened the old Betty.
+
+"Do sit down," she urged again.  "I
+want to hear all about you."
+
+Then, coming to his senses, Anthony
+managed to drag two comfortable chairs
+before the blaze.
+
+"There isn't anything much to tell,"
+he began shyly.  "Only after you gave me
+that money I just started walking farther
+and farther away from Woodford.  Why,
+it seemed to me that I didn't ever want to
+stop, for that would give me a chance to
+realize what I had done.  And I didn't
+stop, either, until I was too dead tired to
+go on.  But by that time I had come to
+another town and it must have been pretty
+late, because the main street was empty.
+I was passing along close to the wall of a
+building when I saw that an office door had
+been left open.  It was pretty cold, so I
+peeped in.  The room was dark and there
+was nobody about, so creeping inside I
+lay down on the floor and went to sleep."  The
+boy stopped, but his listener was leaning
+forward with her hands clasped and her
+lips parted with eagerness.
+
+[Illustration: "There isn't anything much to tell"]
+
+"Do go on and tell me every detail.  It
+sounds just like a story," she entreated.
+
+"When I woke up it was daylight and
+I found that I had landed in a dusty,
+untidy place, littered with old books and
+papers," he continued.  "A small stove in
+the corner was choked up with ashes.  I
+can't tell exactly why, but the first thing
+I did that morning was to scrape out those
+ashes, and then I found some sticks and
+coals and built a fresh fire."  Anthony
+flashed a glance at Betty out of his shy,
+almost frightened blue eyes.  "I guess I
+was feeling kind of well disposed toward
+fires just then, camp fires anyhow.  Then
+I was thinking that I would like to pay for
+my night's lodging in some way.  I fell to
+brushing out the room, so that when the
+young man came down later he would find
+his office cleaned up.  Seemed like all of a
+sudden, after what had happened between
+you and me, that I wanted to work and
+pay my own way.  I had never before been
+anything but a loafer."
+
+"But you couldn't have known that the
+office belonged to a young man unless you
+waited there until after he came in!"
+Betty exclaimed.
+
+Anthony laughed.  "Oh, yes, I waited
+all right and I have been in that same
+office more or less ever since, until I came
+home to Woodford the day before yesterday.
+Of course I meant to clear out as
+soon as I had finished, but while I was
+working I heard a quiet chuckle behind me,
+and swinging around, there stood Mr. Andrews!"
+
+"But who was or is this Mr. Andrews?"
+Betty asked impatiently, too interested to
+be particularly polite.
+
+"My next best friend, after you," the
+young fellow answered.  "Why, I think I
+can remember even now his very first
+words to me: 'Hello,' he said, 'why are
+you doing me such a good turn?'  'Because
+you have just done me one.  I slept all
+night in your office,' I answered.  He
+didn't seem surprised and I thought that
+rather funny.  But afterwards I learned
+that he had been a poor boy himself and
+had slept in all sorts of queer places.
+He is still poor enough, goodness knows,
+but he has graduated in law and set
+up an office.  He will succeed some
+day, sure as faith.  You can bet on him."
+
+Betty bit her lips, her eyes dancing with
+amusement and curiosity.  Actually her
+visitor was becoming so much in earnest
+over his friend that he was forgetting to
+be afraid of her.
+
+"But what about you and your success?"
+she demanded.
+
+The young man flushed, moving uncomfortably
+in his chair, as though yearning to
+get away from his questioner, and yet not
+knowing exactly how.
+
+"Success, _my_ success?  I haven't yet
+used that word in connection with myself.
+I have just managed to keep on working,
+that's about all.  Mr. Andrews let me
+continue sleeping in his office after I told him
+my story and cleaning it to pay for my
+lodging.  Then by getting up early enough
+I arranged to take care of a few others for
+money and to run errands now and then.
+I read in between times."
+
+"Read?  Read what?" Betty inquired
+inexorably, half smiling and half frowning
+at her own persistence.  For somehow in
+their half hour's talk together she had seen
+something in Anthony Graham that made
+her guess that the young man had worked
+harder and dreamed better in this past
+year than he was willing to acknowledge to her.
+
+But Anthony got up from his chair and
+began deliberately backing toward the door.
+He seemed suddenly to have became more
+awkward and self-conscious.  "I read the
+law books, as there wasn't anything else to
+read.  And I was determined to get more
+education so that in the future Nan need
+not be ashamed of me.  Afterwards I
+went to night school and----"
+
+"So you have made up your mind to be
+a lawyer yourself some day."  Betty sighed
+with satisfaction.  How very like a book
+his confession sounded!  She wanted to
+get more information from her visitor and
+yet at the same time longed to rush upstairs
+and commence a letter to Polly O'Neill at
+once.  Wouldn't Polly be interested?  For
+she had predicted on the day of their first
+meeting that the young man would either
+turn out to be absolutely no good, or else
+(and here Betty blushed, recalling the
+prophecy) "Remain your faithful knight to
+the end of the chapter."
+
+"But why did you come back to Woodford
+if this Mr. Andrews was befriending
+you and giving you a chance?" she
+inquired, fearing that her illusion might now
+be shattered.
+
+The young man did not reply at once.
+
+And he scowled until Betty had an uncomfortable
+recollection of the expression which
+she had seen on his face the day of his
+attack upon Polly and her.
+
+Then after moving a few steps nearer the
+fire so that he and the girl were once more
+facing each other, Betty could see that
+his scowl had been due to embarrassment
+and not anger.
+
+"You are awfully good to be willing to
+listen to so long a tale of a ne'er-do-well,"
+he returned.  "I came back to
+Woodford because I was determined to
+make good in my own town.  A fellow that
+can't trust himself in the face of
+temptations isn't worth being trusted.  I'm going
+back to Mr. Andrews later, perhaps, but
+this winter I am to stick right here in
+Woodford and live down my bad name if
+I can.  Judge Maynard says he will give
+me the same kind of a chance that
+Mr. Andrews did, if I am worth it.  And I
+shall be able to see Nan and the others now
+and then.  It didn't seem fair for me to be
+leaving all the family troubles to a girl."
+
+Involuntarily Betty clapped her hands.
+She had not intended to express her
+emotion openly, but so pleased was she with
+Anthony's reply that she couldn't help it.
+The next moment she felt a little ashamed
+of her enthusiasm.
+
+"Oh, Nan is equal to almost anything;
+we consider her the greatest success in our
+Camp Fire club," Betty protested.  "Nan
+is studying domestic science at the High
+School and intends teaching it some day,
+so she will make you awfully comfortable
+at home."
+
+The young man put out his hand.
+"Good-bye," he said.  "I never dreamed
+I would be brave enough to ask you to
+shake hands with me for a good many
+years yet.  But since you have been kind
+enough----"
+
+"To ask you ten thousand questions,"
+Betty laughed, rising and putting out
+both hands with a friendly gesture, and
+then moving toward the door with her
+caller.
+
+"I am not going to be able to live at
+home, however," Anthony concluded.  "It
+is too far to our little place to get into
+town early enough for my work and to
+be here in the evenings for the night school.
+I've got to find a room somewhere.  I
+oughtn't to kick because nobody seems
+crazy to let me stay in their house.  I
+did leave a pretty poor reputation behind
+me around here and I've got to _show_
+people first that I mean to behave differently.
+I guess I'll strike better luck later."
+
+Although Betty was extremely
+sympathetic, she did not answer at once.
+For a sudden surprising understanding had
+come to her.  How difficult it must be for
+any one to have to go about telling his
+acquaintances of his reformation before
+having the chance to prove it.  Then an
+almost appealing expression crept into her
+face, making her cheeks flush hotly and
+her lashes droop.  Her old friends would
+have recognized the look.  For it was the
+one that she most often wore when she
+desired to do another person a kindness
+and feared she might not be allowed.
+
+"Couldn't you, won't you come here
+and have a room with us?" she asked
+unexpectedly.  "We have such heaps of
+rooms in this old house and now mother
+and I are here alone, we really would like
+to have you for protection.  And if you
+don't like to accept with just my
+invitation, will you come in again tomorrow
+or next day?  I am sure mother will wish
+to ask you too."
+
+Anthony Graham had had rather a rough
+time always.  He had a peculiar disposition,
+and all his life probably liked only a
+few people very deeply.  His wasted
+youth--nearly twenty years of idling rather than
+study or work--and his mixed parentage--the
+Italian peasant mother and his New
+England father--would make his struggle
+in the world a long and an uphill one even
+if he should finally succeed.  Among the
+first things he meant to learn was not to
+show his emotions too easily, to hide his
+feelings whenever he could, so that he
+might learn to take without apparent
+flinching the hard knocks that life was
+sure to send.  He had been preparing
+himself for the unkindnesses.  Now at
+Betty's words he felt a lump forming in
+his throat and had a terrified moment of
+believing that he was about to cry like a
+girl.  For could it be possible that any
+human being could so forgive one's sins
+as almost to forget them?  Yet here was
+Betty Ashton asking him to stay in her
+home to protect her mother and herself
+when his only other meeting had been his
+effort to rob her.
+
+Anthony set his teeth.  "I can't live in
+so grand a house as this.  I couldn't afford
+it," he replied huskily.
+
+It was on the tip of Betty's tongue to
+protest that she had never dreamed of
+Anthony's paying anything.  For Betty
+Ashton, whatever the degree of her poverty,
+could never fail in generosity, since
+generosity is a matter not of the pocketbook
+but of the spirit.  However, all of a sudden
+she appreciated that the young man had
+quite as much right to his self-respect as
+she had to hers.
+
+"Even the little will be a help to mother
+and me," she returned more humbly than
+any one else had ever before heard her speak.
+
+"But perhaps I could be useful.  Maybe
+you haven't so many servants as you once
+had----"
+
+Anthony stopped, for Betty's expression
+had changed so completely.  Of course
+she had already repented of her offer.
+
+"We have no servants and you could
+help a great deal," she answered.  And
+then without any pretense of concealing
+them, she let two tears slide down her
+face.  "It is only that I had forgotten
+for the moment that we are not going to
+be able to stay in our house much longer.
+We can't afford to keep it for ourselves
+and I haven't been a success with having
+boarders.  Still it may be some time before
+we can rent or sell it, and if you will stay
+here until then----"
+
+Betty winced, for her visitor had this
+time clasped her hand until the pressure
+of its hard surface hurt.
+
+"You know it would be the greatest
+thing that ever happened for me to be
+allowed to stay here a week," he added.
+
+And Betty laughed.  "Then stay."
+
+As she opened the front door another
+visitor stood waiting on the outside.  He
+was almost as unexpected as Anthony
+Graham.  For it was Herr Crippen, the
+German music professor and Esther's father.
+
+"What on earth could he want?" Betty
+thought irritably.  She was beginning to
+feel anxious to get upstairs to her mother
+again.  For in spite of the fact that she
+now believed that she had a real affection
+for Esther, she had never been able to
+recover from her first prejudice for this
+shabby, hesitating man.  Then his manner
+toward her was always so apologetic.  Why
+on earth should it be?  She was always
+perfectly polite to him.  What a queer
+combination of Thanksgiving visitors she
+was having!
+
+"Gnaediges Fraeulein," he began.  And
+Betty ushered him into the drawing room.
+For perhaps he was bringing her news of Esther.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+HER PENSION
+
+"Good luck never rains but it pours, as well as bad luck, mother,"
+Betty Ashton said one morning nearly a week later.  She had just put
+down a big tray of breakfast on a small table before Mrs. Ashton and
+now seated herself on the opposite side.
+
+Mrs. Ashton sighed.  "If your good luck storm has any reference to us,
+Betty dear, I am sure I don't get your point of view.  For if anything
+but misfortune has followed our footsteps since your father's death I
+am sure I should like to hear what it is."  And Mrs. Ashton shivered,
+drawing her light woolen shawl closer about her shoulders.
+
+There are some persons in this world whom troubles brace.  After the
+first shock of a sorrow or calamity has passed they stand reinforced
+with new strength and new courage.  These are the world's successful
+people.  For after a while, ill luck, finding that it can never down a
+really valiant spirit, grows weary and leaves it alone.  Then the good
+things have their turn--health, better and more admiring friends, fame,
+money, love.  Whatever the struggle has been made for, if it has been
+sufficiently brave and persistent, the reward is sure.  But there are
+other men and women, or girls and boys, for age makes no difference,
+who go down like wilted flowers in the teeth of the first storm.  And
+on them life is apt to trample, misfortunes to pile up.
+
+Mrs. Ashton was one of these women.  She had made things doubly hard
+for Betty and Dick.  Indeed, except for his sister, Richard Ashton
+would never have had the strength of purpose to sail for Germany to
+complete his medical studies.  He would simply have surrendered and
+commenced his practice of medicine in Woodford without being properly
+equipped for perhaps the greatest of all the professions--the struggle
+to conquer disease.  Yet somehow Betty had had a clearer vision than
+can be expected of most girls of her age.  In a vague way she had
+understood that it is oftentimes wiser to make a present sacrifice for
+some greater future gain.  So she had persuaded Dick to use the little
+money that he had for his work, assuring him that she and her mother
+could get on perfectly well together at home.  And with half a dozen
+summer boarders at the time of his leaving, it did look to Dick as
+though her confidence was not misplaced.
+
+Now in answer to her mother's speech Betty said nothing at first.  So
+that several tears sliding down Mrs. Ashton's cheeks watered her hot
+buttered toast.
+
+"I am sure I never expected to live to see this day, my dear, when you
+would have to cook your own breakfast and mine before you could leave
+for school," she murmured.  "Why, I never thought that you would have
+to turn over your hand even to look after yourself.  Until you
+developed that Camp Fire enthusiasm you had not been taught a single
+useful thing.  After all, perhaps it might have been better for you if
+I had never been your mother, if----"
+
+Betty laughed teasingly.  "My dear Mrs. Ashton, you talk as if you
+could have avoided that affliction!  You could not very well have
+helped being my mother, could you?  You did not deliberately choose me
+out from a lot of girls.  Because if you did, I should have very little
+respect for your good judgment.  Think, if you might have selected
+either Polly or Esther!  Why, then you would be sure to be rich again
+some day.  For one of them would act so marvelously that she would be
+able to cast laurels at your feet, while the other would sing you back
+to fortune.  But as it is, you will just have to put up with poor me
+until Dick gets his chance.  Now do eat your breakfast while I relate
+the details of our good luck storm.  In the first place, we are not
+going to have to give up our beloved house.  At least not yet, and
+perhaps never if our German-American Pension plan turns out
+satisfactorily."
+
+Betty drank a swallow of coffee, hardly appreciating what she was
+doing, so deep was her absorption in their affairs.
+
+"Honestly, mother, I should never have dreamed of being so interested
+in this plan of Rose's and Miss McMurtry's for us, if it had not been
+for Dick's letters.  But if German ladies can keep successful pensions,
+why not Americans?  Remember what a funny lot of people Dick has
+described--the fat widow with the two musical daughters.  I hope one of
+them won't set her cap for Dick, he loves music so dearly.  Then you
+know the young boy student who was nearly starving when Dick rescued
+him, and the old Baron who wears a wig, and the half dozen others?  But
+no matter how queer and funny they may be, they can be no more so than
+our pensioners.  There is Miss McMurtry herself and Anthony Graham, and
+Dr. Barton moving into town to have an office in our old library.  I
+wonder sometimes if he and Rose are still friends.  They had a
+disagreement once out at the cabin and she just speaks to him since."
+
+Then Betty Ashton hesitated and devoted herself to finishing her
+breakfast.
+
+"I am sure I don't understand why you fail to mention Herr Crippen,
+child, who is to have a room here with us and teach his pupils in our
+big drawing room.  I am glad he has been so successful with his music
+pupils that he is able to give Esther the advantage of studying in New
+York.  I wish you did not have such a ridiculous prejudice against him.
+Indeed, my dear, I have a very strong reason for insisting that you be
+kind to him.  He is Esther's father and----"
+
+Mrs. Ashton spoke more firmly than was usual with her.
+
+But Betty shrugged her shoulders imperceptibly.  "Oh, of course I am
+glad enough to have the Professor here and I have never said I did not
+like him.  But I am specially happy that Edith Norton's family has
+moved away so she is to have a room with us.  I am kind of lonely
+without Polly and Esther, and somehow Edith,"----Betty broke off
+abruptly.  Not even to her mother did she feel like mentioning the fact
+that Edith did not seem to be turning out quite so well as the other
+Sunrise Camp Fire girls.
+
+With a hurried movement she next picked up the breakfast tray,
+exclaiming:
+
+"Thank heavens we are not going to have to give our lodgers anything
+but their rooms and that Martha is coming back to do our cooking and
+the cleaning.  Good old soul to offer to do it without pay.  She said
+that she could not bear living anywhere except with us and that she had
+enough of father's money stored away in bank not to need any more.  But
+we could not have had her work without pay."  Betty kissed her mother
+lightly on the forehead.  "If any one else turns up today and wishes a
+room, just refer them to me.  I'm afraid I won't leave us a bed to
+sleep in.  I am getting so anxious to surprise Dick by really earning a
+lot of money."
+
+"Well, don't rent the back room that Esther used to have, Betty.  You
+may move into it yourself some day if you like, but I would rather not
+have a stranger occupy it.  I----"
+
+"What on earth is queer about that room?" Betty interrupted.  "I have
+not time to listen now, but you _must_ tell me.  You talk as though it
+were a kind of Bluebeard's Chamber of Horrors.  Yet I don't suppose you
+would put me in it if I were likely to have my head cut off in
+consequence.  Good-bye, dear."  And Betty fled out into the hall,
+realizing that it must be almost school time.
+
+The door of Esther's old room happened by accident to be standing open,
+and still holding on to her tray, Betty paused before it for a few
+moments.  She was not thinking of a possible mystery or secret in
+connection with the room, only wondering if Esther and Polly were to be
+at home for the Christmas holidays.  They both wanted to come, she
+thought.  But Esther was not sure of being able to afford it and Polly
+was uncertain of whether she wished to stay in her stepfather's house
+at a time when her stepbrother, Frank Wharton, whom she disliked so
+much, should also be at home for his holidays.  The girl's face was a
+little wistful.  She so longed to see both her friends.  Without them
+and without Dick, this first Christmas under such changed conditions at
+home might be rather trying.
+
+"Oh!" Betty exclaimed a trifle indignantly, with her arm shaking so
+that the dishes in her hands rattled dangerously.  "What in the world
+are you doing in the house at this hour, Anthony Graham?  You
+frightened me nearly to death, turning up at my elbow in such an
+unexpected fashion.  I thought you had been gone hours!"
+
+Anthony put down his coal scuttle and took hold of Betty's tray.  "I
+have been away, but I came back for a moment because your mother wished
+me to do something for her as soon as I had the spare time."  His tone
+was so surly that Betty smiled.  Anthony had been brought up with such
+a different class of people that he was unable to understand sarcasm or
+pretense of any kind.  Whatever one said he accepted in exactly the
+words in which it was spoken.  And Betty and her friends had always
+been accustomed to joking with one another, to saying one thing, often
+meaning another.  Anthony should have had the sense to realize that she
+was not really cross, that her indignation was partly assumed.
+Therefore she did not intend taking the trouble to set him right in the
+present instance.
+
+"I'll carry the dishes down myself.  I have plenty of time," she
+protested coldly.
+
+But Anthony only held the more firmly to the tray, with his face
+crimsoning.
+
+The truth was that he had been appreciating in the past few days a
+truth of which the girl herself was as yet unconscious.  Betty's manner
+toward him had noticeably changed.  In the excitement of their
+Thanksgiving day meeting and his romantic return of the money which she
+had completely forgotten, she had shown far more interest and
+friendliness than she now did.  On that occasion Betty had overlooked
+the young fellow's roughness, his lack of education and family
+advantages.  Really Anthony had never been taught even the common
+civilities of life and had to trust to a kind of instinct, even in
+knowing when to take off his hat, when to shake hands, how to enter or
+leave a room.  And he understood keenly enough his own limitations.
+Yet the change in Betty's attitude had hurt him, even though he
+acknowledged to himself his failure to deserve even her original
+kindness.  She was still kind enough of course in the things which she
+thought counted.  She was cordial about his having his room in the
+house with her mother and herself and most careful of thanking him for
+any assistance which he rendered them.  Yet the difference was there.
+For neither in heart nor mind had Betty yet grown big enough to feel
+real comradeship with a boy so beneath her in social position and
+opportunities.
+
+Nevertheless she did not mean to be ungracious and something in the
+carriage of the young man's head as he moved off down the hall
+suggested that he was either hurt or angry, although exactly why Betty
+could not understand.
+
+"Don't go for a second, Anthony," she called after him.  "I wanted to
+tell you that you are living in a house with a haunted chamber.  At
+least I don't know whether this room is exactly haunted, but there is
+something queer about it that my mother and brother have never confided
+to me.  Perhaps I shall move in and find out for myself what it is.  I
+will if there is a chance of my friends, Esther Crippen and Polly
+O'Neill, coming home for the holidays.  For it is so big that we could
+stay in it together.  And perhaps Mrs. O'Neill will let Polly come here
+and visit me for a little while.  Both the girls are doing wonderful
+things in New York City.  And I am afraid if they don't come home
+pretty soon they will both have outgrown me.  It is so horrid to be a
+perfectly ordinary person."
+
+As Betty moved off, the expression on her companion's face did not
+suggest that he thought of her as entirely ordinary.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+TEMPTATION
+
+"You are perfectly absurd and I haven't the faintest intention of
+confiding in any one of you."  And Polly O'Neill, with her cheeks
+flaming, rushed away from a group of girls and into her own bedroom,
+closing the door and locking it behind her.
+
+This winter at boarding school in New York City had not been in the
+least what she had anticipated.  Perhaps the character of the school
+she and her mother had chosen had been unfortunate.  Yet they had
+selected it with the greatest care and it was expensive beyond Polly's
+wildest dreams.  For, apart from her own small inheritance, her
+stepfather, Mr. Wharton, had insisted on being allowed to contribute to
+her support, and not to appear too ungracious both to her mother and to
+him, his offer had been accepted.  Yet Polly did not consider herself
+any greater success in thus masquerading as a rich girl than she had
+been as a poor one.  Was she never to be satisfied?  Her school
+companions were all wealthy and few of them had any ideas beyond
+clothes and society.  To them Polly had seemed a kind of curiosity.
+She was so impetuous, so brilliant, so full of a thousand moods.  Betty
+Ashton had once said that to know Polly O'Neill was a liberal
+education, and yet in order to know her one ought to have had a liberal
+education beforehand.
+
+Today during the recreation hour at "Miss Elkins' Finishing School,"
+which was Polly's present abode, there had been a sudden discussion of
+plans for the future.  And Polly, partly because she was in a
+contradictory mood and partly because she really wished it to be known,
+had boldly announced herself as poor as a church mouse with no chance
+of not starving to death in the future unless she could learn to make
+her own living.
+
+And this had started the onslaught of questions from which she had just
+torn herself away.
+
+For Polly had absolutely determined not to confide in any one of her
+new companions her ambition to go upon the stage.  They would not
+understand and would only be stupid and inquisitive.  Why, had they not
+worried her nearly to death simply because of her acquaintance with
+Miss Margaret Adams?  For one day the great actress had driven up to
+the school and taken Polly for a drive.  And ever afterwards the other
+girls were determined to find out how and when she had met her and what
+she was like in every smallest particular, until Polly was nearly
+frantic.
+
+Now in her own room, which was a small one, but belonged to her alone,
+the girl dashed cold water on her face until she began to feel her
+temper cooling down.  Then with a book in her lap she planted herself
+in a low chair.  The book was a collection of Camp Fire songs which
+Sylvia Wharton had given her.  And although Polly could not sing, the
+poetry and inspiration of them was so lovely that she felt they might
+be a consoling influence.
+
+Nevertheless Polly did not commence reading at once.  Instead, her thin
+shoulders drooped forward pathetically, and putting one elbow on her
+knee she rested her pointed chin in her hand.
+
+For she was unhappy without any real reason in the world.  Polly
+O'Neill was one of the sensitive and emotional persons who must always
+be more or less miserable in the wrong environment.  She did not like
+being at boarding school and yet she did not wish to return to Woodford
+to live in her stepfather's house in circumstances so different from
+those of her old life.  Besides, had not Miss Adams advised that she
+spend several years away from Woodford in order to see more of the
+outside world and its myriad types of men and women?  She could not ask
+to be allowed to come back home now, after the fight she had made to
+leave.  Moreover, she was learning many things that might be useful to
+her as an actress.  Miss Adams herself had said so.  There was no fault
+with the opportunities for study at Miss Elkins', only with the
+interest of the girls.  She herself was working hard at French and
+German and physical culture and was having some special private
+teaching in elocution by a master recommended by Miss Adams.
+
+No, Polly did not intend to give up.  Only she was trying to decide
+whether or not to return to Woodford for the Christmas holidays.  She
+was longing to see her mother and Mollie and Betty Ashton.  Yet Frank
+Wharton would be at home and she and Frank had quarreled all the time
+that they had been in the house together during the past summer.  And
+her mother and Mollie were so wrapped up in one another and in the
+splendid new home and in Mr. Wharton!  Polly felt herself almost an
+outsider when she thought of the days when they had lived in their own
+little cottage just opposite the Princess.
+
+Then, at the thought of Betty Ashton, the slightly hard look in Polly's
+Irish blue eyes faded.  Of the Princess' understanding and affection
+she could always feel sure.  And what a brave fight she was making!
+Every letter from her mother or Mollie or from any one of their old
+Camp Fire circle had something admiring to say of her.  And yet she and
+Mollie had always thought of their Princess as only a spoiled darling,
+beautiful and meant only for cherishing.  Ah well, the Princess was
+really an aristocrat in the old meaning of the word.  She had never
+been in the least like these New York girls, caring for money for its
+own sake and feeling superior to other people just because of her
+money.  Betty had birth and beauty and brains.
+
+Suddenly Polly dashed the tears from her eyes and with a smile jumped
+to her feet, dropping her Camp Fire book.  There was no use sitting
+there and thinking of all the virtues that her Princess possessed that
+began with "b."  This was Friday afternoon and she was free to do what
+she liked.  Esther was living in a boarding house not far away, and she
+had not seen her in two weeks.  And in all the world there was nothing
+Esther liked to talk about so much as Betty.  Besides, if Esther were
+going home for the holidays, why, Polly felt that she would rather like
+to have some one persuade her into making her own decision.
+
+Is it good or evil fortune that makes one so readily influenced by
+outside conditions?  The December afternoon was cold and brilliant; and
+in few places is the climate of early winter so stimulating as in New
+York City.  Esther was not at home, and for a few minutes her visitor
+felt disappointed.  But the streets were so beautiful and alluring and
+there were so many people out!  It was true that Polly had received
+permission only to call upon her friend, but what wrong could there be
+in her taking a walk?  She had only to keep straight along Broadway and
+there could be no possible chance of getting lost.  Polly was not in
+the least timid or unable to take care of herself.  She was a girl from
+a small town, and yet no one could have imagined that she had not been
+a New Yorker all her life, except for her quick and eager interest in
+the sights about her.
+
+No one noticed or molested Polly in the least.  It was only that in her
+usual unthinking fashion she flung herself into the way of temptation.
+Farther down Broadway than she had ever been before, Polly stopped for
+a moment to look more closely at a group of girls.  Most of them were
+several years older than herself.  They were standing close together
+near a closed door, and yet only occasionally did one of them make a
+remark to the other; for apparently they were strangers to one another.
+
+At first the girls themselves attracted Polly's attention because the
+larger number appeared so nervous and anxious.  More than half of them
+had their faces rouged and powdered and were fashionably dressed, yet
+even when they smiled their expressions were uneasy.
+
+They interested the country girl immensely.  In order not to seem rude
+or inquisitive she pretended to wish to gaze into a shop window near
+them.  Then, as they continued waiting and showed no sign of what they
+were waiting for, Polly O'Neill's curiosity overcame her good manners.
+Another girl had separated herself from the group and was standing
+within two feet of Polly, also pretending to stare into the same window.
+
+Polly edged closer to her.  The young woman must have been nearly
+twenty-five.  She had been pretty once, yet already her face was
+haggard and she had circles under her big brown eyes.  Unexpectedly
+Polly smiled at her, and there was always something almost irresistible
+in Polly's smile.
+
+"Could you, would you mind telling me why so many girls are standing
+here in this one particular spot?" she inquired.  "It is a cold day
+when one is still.  And yet I have been here almost ten minutes and no
+one has even started to move away."
+
+"We are waiting to try to get jobs," the older girl answered
+listlessly.  "And we have come sooner than we were told because each
+one of us hoped to get ahead of the other."
+
+"Jobs?" Polly repeated stupidly.  "What kind of work is it that you are
+looking for?"
+
+"Oh, theatrical jobs," the young woman explained.  "It's coming on to
+be Christmas time and the managers are putting on extras for the
+holidays."
+
+She turned away from her questioner, believing that she had heard a
+faint noise at the door near which they were lingering.  A quick tug at
+her coat attracted her attention again.
+
+"Can any one apply for a position who wants it?" Polly queried.  Her
+eyes were shining, her cheeks were crimson and her breath coming in
+kind of broken gasps as though she were frightened.
+
+But the magic door had opened at last and the older woman had no time
+to waste.  "Oh, yes, any one can apply," she returned with a kind of
+hardness.  And then she failed to observe that the girl she had been
+talking with was following close behind her.
+
+Polly herself hardly realized what she was doing.  Once more she had
+yielded to that old wretched habit of hers, of acting first and then
+thinking afterwards.  Like a flash of lightning it had but this instant
+occurred to her that more than anything she would like to see inside a
+theatrical manager's office.  It would be like placing the tips of
+one's toes on the promised land.  Of course, Polly knew perfectly well
+that she was being reckless, only she would not allow herself time to
+consider this point of view.  She would simply slip in with these other
+girls and pretend that she would like a position should she be forced
+into it.  As she had had no experience, there could be no possibility
+of her getting an engagement.  Ten minutes afterwards she would slip
+out again and return to school.
+
+With a dozen or more other girls, Polly was the next moment ushered
+into a room that was quite dark and had only a few chairs in it.  There
+they were told to wait until the manager could be free to speak to
+them.  So Polly crowded herself into the farthest, darkest corner and
+immediately her heart began to thump and her knees to shake, while she
+wished herself a thousand miles away.
+
+What would her mother say to this latest of her escapades; and Mollie
+and Betty?  What would Miss Adams, for that matter, think of her?  She
+was an actress herself; but of course Polly never imagined that she had
+started her career in any such humble fashion.
+
+Coming partially to her senses, Polly started hurriedly toward the
+closed door.  There was no reason in the world for her remaining in
+this room unless she wished it.  But just as she turned the knob the
+manager entered from the hall.  And Polly's curiosity got the better of
+her again.  She would stay just half a minute longer and see what
+happened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE WAY OF THE WILFUL
+
+When Polly O'Neill came out into the street again, she did not know
+whether she was walking on the sidewalk, in the air, or at the bottom
+of the sea.  But because of a certain thrilling excitement she felt
+that she must have wings and because of a heavy weight inside her that
+she must be in the depth of the sea.
+
+For Polly had just signed an engagement to act for two weeks in a
+Christmas pantomime.
+
+It sounds incredible.  And it was possibly as unwise and headstrong a
+thing as a girl could well do.  And yet Polly had originally no actual
+intention or desire to do wrong.  Simply she had yielded to a sudden
+impulse, to an intense curiosity.  But now things were different; for
+Polly was realizing her wilfulness completely, and instead of repenting
+and turning back to confess her folly, was every moment trying to plan
+by what method her purpose could be accomplished.
+
+Not for anything in the world would her mother give her consent to her
+experiment.  And that in itself should have been a sufficient argument
+against it.  Yet Polly explained to herself that, after all, there
+could not be any great harm in doing what she so much wished, provided
+that she made confession afterwards.  She was almost eighteen, and
+thousands of girls in New York City were earning their living, who were
+years younger than she.  Perhaps it might even do her good to find out
+what this stage life really was like--whether it was as fascinating as
+she dreamed, or all tinsel as most grown people were so fond of telling
+her.
+
+No, the question that was uppermost with Polly O'Neill was not in
+connection with her decision.  It was how her decision might best be
+carried out.
+
+Fortunately she had been writing that she did not believe that she
+would come home for the Christmas holidays.  She did wish to see her
+mother and Mollie and Betty, of course, and had almost given way to
+this longing only an hour before.  But now, had not fate itself
+intervened, flinging her into the path of her desire?  And Polly was
+Irish and had always declared that she believed in the leadings of
+fate, even when her mother and sister had insisted that fate and her
+own wish were too often confused in her mind.
+
+Had she not hidden herself in the corner when the theatrical manager
+entered the room, with every intention of running away as soon as she
+could escape unobserved?  And then had he not suddenly swooped down
+upon her, selecting her from the dozens of other applicants?  Polly was
+not exactly sure of what had happened, except that the man had said
+that she looked the part of the character he was after.  The fact that
+she had confessed having had no stage experience had not even deterred
+him.  The new play was to be chiefly for young people and the manager
+particularly required youthful actors and actresses.
+
+The play to be produced was the dramatization of a wonderful old
+Bohemian fairy story, which Polly remembered to have read years before,
+called "The Castle of Life."  The story is that of a little boy,
+Grazioso, brought up by his grandmother, whom he loves better than all
+else in the world.  Then one day he sees that the grandmother is
+growing old and fears that she must soon leave him.  And so he sets out
+to find "The Castle of Life" in order once more to bring back youth to
+the old woman.  The play follows his adventures on the road to the
+castle, and includes his meeting with two fairies--the Fairy of the
+Woods and the Fairy of the Water.  Polly was to impersonate the wood
+spirit.
+
+Her appearance did suggest the character, though naturally she could
+not appreciate this fact.  But there was always something a bit eerie
+and fantastic about her, something not exactly of the everyday
+world--her high cheekbones and thin, emotional face with its scarlet
+lips and intense expression faintly foreshadowing an unusual future.
+
+But Polly at the present moment was not feeling in the least unusual,
+only rather more self-willed and more calculating.  Never could she
+recall having deliberately deceived any one before in her entire life.
+And yet to accomplish her present purpose there was no other way than
+the way of deception.  No one in Woodford must guess at her reason for
+remaining in New York during the holidays, nor must Miss Elkins have
+any possible cause for suspicion.  Of course she could not stay on at
+boarding school.  That idea was utterly ridiculous.  She would never be
+allowed to go out for a single evening alone.  Already her right to
+liberty had been considerably overreached by this walk of hers down
+town.  And what she had done during the walk!  The offender smiled
+rather wickedly at the thought of the consternation and excitement that
+the discovery of her act would create.  Home she would go to Woodford
+then to stay indefinitely!
+
+But Polly did not mean to be found out, She meant to have her little
+taste of emancipation and then go back into routine again, until she
+was old enough for a larger freedom.  So for this reason, although she
+should have returned to school an hour before, she continued walking
+slowly, devising and rejecting a dozen plans.  It was going to be
+tremendously difficult to accomplish her purpose.  But this she had
+foreseen five minutes after she had promised to accept the theatrical
+manager's offer.  However she would "find a way."  She remembered how
+often the Princess had said that she had more talent than "Sentimental
+Tommy" in this particular direction.
+
+She reached Miss Elkins' school and received five minutes' scolding
+from that lady, in the meekest spirit, still without having any idea of
+what she could possibly do to accomplish her design.
+
+All evening she talked so little and her attention was so concentrated
+upon the lesson which she appeared to be studying, that her school
+companions left her entirely alone.  Polly's passion for studying had
+always been regarded as an eccentricity.  But now since she had
+announced on that afternoon that she had her own living to make there
+was possibly some excuse for her industry.  Nevertheless the girls felt
+more convinced than ever that she was not in the least like any of the
+rest of them and, although rather fascinating and unusual, not a person
+whom one would care to know intimately.
+
+The difference in her manner and expression that night attracted the
+attention of one of the teachers--the girl's face was so tense and
+white, her blue eyes showed such dark shadows beneath them.  It was
+owing to this teacher's advice that Polly was allowed to leave the
+study hall an hour earlier than usual and go to her own room and to bed.
+
+She was not feeling particularly well.  Her head did ache and her
+conscience troubled her the least little bit, notwithstanding she had
+not the faintest intention of surrender.  With hot cheeks and cold
+hands she lay still for a long time until the noises of the other girls
+retiring had quieted down and the big house was silent.  Then Polly
+suddenly sat up in bed.  A moment later she had crawled out on the
+floor and lighted a candle by her writing desk.  The electric lights
+had been turned off for the night.  But even in the pitch darkness
+Polly would still have composed her letter.  For an idea had at last
+come to her.  And if only she could get just one person to accede to it
+her way would be plain.  The one person might be difficult.  Polly was
+perfectly aware of this, but then she had great faith in her own powers
+of persuasion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+ESTHER'S ROOM
+
+Just above the small alcohol lamp the teakettle was beginning to sing.
+On a table near-by were teacups and saucers, with one plate of
+sandwiches covered over with a small napkin, and another of cookies.
+
+Several times a tall girl glanced at the clock and then walked across
+the room to take the kettle off the stove, only to place it back again
+the next instant.
+
+Then at last she seated herself by an open piano.  There was very
+little furniture in the room except the piano, a small cot and the
+table.  Yet it had an atmosphere of home and comfort, such as some
+persons are able to give to a tent in a desert.  And standing in a row
+at the back of the same tea table were three candles in ten-cent-store
+glass candlesticks, waiting to be lighted.  The afternoon was a dismal
+one, with occasional flurries of snow; so that when the proper time
+came for the candle-lighting, the flames would not be ungrateful.
+
+But in order to make the waiting seem less long the girl was evidently
+trying to distract her attention by practicing her music.  Several
+times she sang over the scales.  And then, dissatisfied with her own
+work, repeated them until finally her voice rose with unusual resonance
+and power.  Then, after another slight pause, she drifted almost
+unconsciously into the words of a song:
+
+  "Burn, fire, burn!
+  Flicker, flicker, flame!
+  Whose hand above this blaze is lifted
+  Shall be with magic touch engifted,
+  To warm the hearts of lonely mortals
+  Who stand without their open portals.
+  The torch shall draw them to the fire
+  Higher, higher
+  By desire.
+  Whoso shall stand by this hearthstone,
+  Flame-fanned,
+  Shall never, never stand alone;
+  Whose house is dark and bare and cold,
+  Whose house is cold,
+  This is his own.
+  Flicker, flicker, flicker, flame;
+  Burn, fire burn!"
+
+
+She had not heard the door open softly nor even noticed the figure that
+crept softly into the small room.
+
+But now a pair of gloved hands were clasped eagerly together and an
+enthusiastic voice said:
+
+"Esther Crippen, that is the loveliest song in all the world and you
+are the loveliest singer of it!  How glad I am to have arrived at just
+this moment!  Why, your little room makes me feel that it is a _real_
+refuge from all that is dark and bare and cold.  And you surely are
+with the 'magic touch engifted to warm the hearts of lonely mortals'
+with that beautiful voice of yours."
+
+And Polly O'Neill, putting one hand on each of Esther's cheeks, kissed
+her with unexpected ardor.
+
+It made Esther flush and tremble slightly as she rose to greet her
+long-desired guest.  Any compliment made Esther shy and one from Polly
+more than from another person.  For although each girl admired the
+other's talents and character, they had never understood each other
+especially well.  Esther always seemed to Polly far too sober and
+almost too unselfish and self-effacing, while Polly to the quieter girl
+had all the brilliance and unreliability of a will-o'-the-wisp.  Before
+coming to New York for the winter their intimacy had been due largely
+to their mutual devotion to Betty; but now, both lonely and both in a
+new environment, they had been greatly drawn together.  Polly's
+occasional visits had been one of Esther's few sources of pleasure
+outside her work.
+
+"How charming you are looking, Polly," Esther began, taking off her
+guest's dark coat and hat, and seeing her emerge in a crimson woolen
+dress, which made a bright spot of color in the shabby room.  Polly,
+you must remember, was only pretty on occasions; but this afternoon was
+certainly one of her good-looking days.  The cold had made her pale
+cheeks flame and given a softer glow to her eyes.
+
+"I am simply ravenous, Esther, and dying for your delicious tea," Polly
+next remarked, following her hostess to the tea table and taking her
+seat, while Esther poured out the boiling water.  "It is a kind of a
+homesick day and I have been wishing that we were going to have a
+meeting of our old Sunrise Hill Camp Fire circle.  What wouldn't you
+give for a glimpse of the Princess this afternoon?"
+
+Esther's lips twitched as she lighted her three candles.
+
+"Almost anything I possess," she returned.
+
+"But you are going to see her pretty soon?  You are going back to
+Woodford for Christmas?"  Polly tried to hide her own nervousness in
+putting this simple question.  With her eyes shining over the edge of
+her cup she continued slowly drinking her tea, so that the rest of her
+face could not be seen.
+
+But Esther was not paying her any special attention.  Quietly she shook
+her head.  "No, Polly, I am not going home.  I am so sorry, for I
+wanted to dreadfully.  But my music lessons are so expensive that
+father does not feel he can afford to let me come.  I haven't yet had
+the courage to write and break the news to the Princess.  She is fond
+of me, don't you think so, Polly?  She will be sorry that I can't be
+with her for the holidays?  Of course I know she does not care for me
+as she does for you.  I shall never expect that.  But it does mean so
+much to me to feel sure of her affection."
+
+Polly frowned in a slightly puzzled fashion.  Esther's adoration even
+of her beloved Betty seemed a little unnatural.  Why should one girl
+care so much about the attitude of another one?  She loved Betty
+herself, of course, and Betty loved her.  Yet she doubted very much if
+either one worried over the emotions of the other.
+
+"Oh, yes, Esther," Polly returned a trifle impatiently.  "Of course
+Betty is devoted to you.  Why shouldn't she be?  Really, I do think you
+would let her almost trample upon you if she liked.  Only Betty never
+would like to hurt any one, thank heaven!  But I am glad to hear you
+are not going home for the Christmas holidays, because I am not going
+either."
+
+There was nothing so remarkable in this statement that it should make
+Polly turn white and then red again.  But fortunately the three Camp
+Fire candles, "Work, Health and Love," were now flickering so that the
+elder girl could not get a clear vision of the other's face.
+
+But instead of appearing pleased over this news Esther seemed
+disappointed.  "I am so sorry, for Betty's sake," she returned.  "She
+wouldn't mind my not being with her so much if she only might have you."
+
+Polly shrugged her thin shoulders in a fashion she had when vexed.
+
+"O Esther, I think you might have been polite enough to say that you
+would be glad to have me in town if you were to be here--particularly
+when I came to ask you if I might spend the holidays with you."
+
+"Spend the holidays with me?" Esther repeated in rather a stupid
+fashion.  Naturally she was puzzled as to just why a girl in Polly's
+position should elect to spend her Christmas vacation in a cheap New
+York boarding house with another girl for whom she had no special
+sentiment.
+
+"Why in the world do you want to remain in the city with me?" she asked
+again, too honest to pretend that pleasure was her first sentiment
+until she got a more definite understanding of the situation.
+
+But Polly was now making no effort to devote her attention either to
+eating or drinking.  Instead she had rested both elbows on the table
+and was looking at her companion with the half-pleading,
+half-commanding expression that both Mollie and Betty knew so well.
+
+"Promise not to say anything until I have finished?" she began
+coaxingly.  "For you see it is to explain why I want to stay with you
+that made me write to ask you to make this engagement with me for this
+afternoon."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE THREAT
+
+"Then you refuse to help me or to keep my secret?" Polly O'Neill
+protested indignantly.  "Really, Esther, I never knew any one with such
+a gift for considering herself her sister's keeper.  We belong to the
+same Camp Fire Club.  And if that means anything I thought it was
+loyalty and service toward one another.
+
+  "'As fagots are brought from the forest
+    Firmly held by the sinews which bind them,
+  So cleave to these others, your sisters,
+    Wherever, whenever you find them.'"
+
+
+Esther had walked across the room and had her back turned during this
+recitation.  But now she moved around, facing her visitor until it was
+Polly's eyes that dropped before her own.  The older girl had always
+the dignity that comes from truth and sincerity.
+
+"Don't be absurd, Polly," she said, speaking quietly, but with no lack
+of decision.  "You know as well as I do that loyalty has nothing to do
+with aiding one another to do what one does not believe to be right.  I
+don't want to preach.  Yet don't you think perhaps _you_ are breaking a
+part of our Camp Fire law?  'Be Trustworthy.  This law teaches us not
+to undertake enterprises rashly.'"
+
+"Oh, please hush, Esther,"  Polly insisted.  "There is no use in our
+quarreling, and we are sure to if you go on preaching like that.  I
+told you what I have made up my mind to do.  If you don't wish to help
+me, that of course is your affair.  All I have the right to demand is,
+that what I told you in the strictest confidence you repeat to no one
+else."
+
+She picked up her coat and began slowly buttoning it, waiting for
+Esther's reply, which did not come at once.
+
+"I don't know whether I can promise you even that," the older girl
+answered finally.  Her face was white and she moved her hands in the
+old nervous fashion that Betty had almost broken her of.  "I don't
+suppose you can understand, Polly, what an almost dangerous thing you
+are about to undertake.  And without your mother knowing it!  O Polly,
+please don't!  Why, if anything should happen to you what would she say
+to me or Molly and Betty, if knowing your intention I did not warn
+them?"
+
+Polly was like a hot flame in her anger.  In her life Esther scarcely
+remembered ever having seen any one in such intense yet quiet passion.
+All the blue seemed to have gone out of her visitor's eyes until they
+were almost black.  Her lips were drawn and although she tried to
+control her voice, it quivered like a too-tightly-drawn violin string.
+
+"Esther," she said, "I shall not leave this room until I have your
+solemn promise.  Perhaps you don't know anything about the standards of
+conduct between people of birth and breeding.  You were brought up in
+an orphan asylum and had no mother.  Whether you disapprove of me or
+not makes no difference.  I am not objecting to your disapproval.  I
+can perfectly understand that.  But what I absolutely will not endure
+is for you to tell my secret because it happens to strike your
+conscience that that is the right thing to do.  My secret belongs to me
+as absolutely as my clothes or any of my other possessions do.  And
+because you chance not to approve of it or of them is no reason why you
+should steal them from me and give them away to other people."
+
+Again Esther was silent and her eyes filled with tears.  What was the
+use of arguing with Polly when she was in this mood?  Yet there were so
+many things that she could honestly say.  And one of them, that if she
+had had the good fortune to have a mother, she at least would not have
+tried to deceive her as Polly was doing.
+
+However Esther was not sure that the latter part of her companion's
+argument was not true.  Had she the right to betray Polly's confidence,
+even though she might consider it for her good?  For Polly had begun
+her revelation by insisting that what she told be kept in the strictest
+secrecy, and she had listened with that understanding.
+
+Unfortunately Esther's failure to reply did not strike her visitor as
+indicating a change in her point of view.  Polly flung herself angrily
+down into a chair, as though intent upon beginning a siege.  She was
+trying in a measure to control her temper, realizing how ashamed she
+usually felt after the flare of it was past.  Still she did honorably
+consider that Esther's attitude in the present situation was the wrong
+one.  Perhaps she was being disobedient, wilful, wicked even.  Yet she
+had made up her mind to take the consequences (at least the
+consequences that she was now able to foresee).  And she had no idea of
+being frustrated in her purpose by an outside person, whose assistance
+she had been foolish enough to ask.  No, some way must be devised that
+would force Esther into silence.
+
+Polly glanced desperately about the small room.  There was a big
+photograph of the Princess, smiling at her from the wall, the Princess
+at her loveliest, with her exquisitely refined features, her delicate,
+high-bred air.  She turned away from it rather quickly to look again at
+her companion.  Goodness, what a contrast there still was between the
+two girls!  They had believed that Esther was improving a little in her
+appearance.  Yet just now worry and uncertainty made her seem plainer
+even than usual.  And she had on an ugly but thoroughly useful
+chocolate-colored dress that Betty would have made her throw into the
+fire at once.
+
+"Betty, it was always Betty with Esther Crippen!"  If only she could
+reach Esther in some way through their friend.  This was an ugly
+thought of Polly's.  She was ashamed of it and yet felt herself driven
+to using almost any means toward attaining her end.
+
+"Look here, Esther Crippen," she began, breaking the silence first.  "I
+wonder if it has ever occurred to you that you may some day have a
+secret in your life (or you may have one already for all that I know),
+which you want more than anything to keep hidden from people.  Say you
+particularly wished Betty never to find it out.  Well, suppose I
+discovered your secret, suppose I knew about it right now, would you
+want me to tell Betty everything that I had found out just because I
+decided that it would be the right thing to do?"
+
+Polly happened to be staring into her own lap as she delivered this
+speech, feeling none too proud of it and having to trust to her
+imagination as she went along.  Now, however, she glanced up into the
+face of the other girl, who was standing near her.
+
+Then with an exclamation of regret, almost of fear, Polly jumped to her
+feet.
+
+"Good heavens!  Esther, what is the matter with you?  Are you ill, do
+you feel like you were going to faint?  If you are sick why on earth
+haven't you told me before?  We could talk over this business of mine
+any time."
+
+And Polly, forgetting her anger, put her arm reassuringly about her
+former friend, fairly leading her to a chair.  Esther continued staring
+at her, with a deathly white face, evidently trying to speak, but not
+able.  Then suddenly the girl collapsed and dropping her head on her
+arm began to cry.  She was ordinarily self-restrained; and being
+brought up in an orphan asylum among people who took no interest in her
+emotions she had learned unusual self-control.  Probably only three or
+four persons had ever seen her give way like this before in her life.
+So she did not cry easily, but in a kind of shaken, broken fashion that
+brought a remorseful Polly on the floor at her feet.
+
+"What on earth have I said that has hurt you so, Esther?" she begged.
+"I know I am a wretched little beast who does or say 'most anything
+sometimes in order to get my own way.  But of course I don't know any
+secret of yours and if I did I should never tell.  I only like to
+threaten things because I'm cross.  You see I don't believe in telling
+secrets."
+
+This was a Polly-like way of apologizing and yet driving in her own
+claim at the same time.  If only at this moment Esther had had the
+Princess' understanding of Polly O'Neill's character, most certainly
+she would have laughed.  But Esther could not pull herself together so
+quickly.  A few moments later, however, she put her hands on Polly's
+shoulders and in the face of all that had just happened, kissed her.
+
+"No, Polly," she said, "I know that if ever you should make up your
+mind that there was something, which I thought best should never be
+known, you would never tell it, even if I betray your secret now.
+Perhaps we don't agree about some things.  But you could never be
+revengeful.  I am sure I don't know what I ought to do.  Of course you
+have the right to choose for yourself.  I--I wish you wouldn't do what
+you have decided upon.  But if I don't tell and yet don't let you stay
+here with me, what on earth would you do about this theatrical scheme?"
+
+"Why, go to some other boarding house for two weeks," Polly replied
+calmly.  "I am sure that is exactly what you are doing, boarding in New
+York and going on with your work.  Of course your work happens to be
+studying music at present, but you have already sung at two church
+concerts and----"
+
+This time Esther did laugh.  "Well, church concerts are hardly to be
+compared with the stage, Polly.  And please look in your mirror and
+remember that I am I and you are you.  But of course you realize that
+if you will go on with this whim of yours, I am not going to let you
+live in any place by yourself.  You would be sure to get ill or
+something dreadful might happen.  No, I shall beg you every minute till
+the time comes, not to do what you must know would worry your mother.
+But if you still persist, why, you are coming right here to stay with
+me and I shall be your shadow every moment until you go back to school."
+
+Polly jumped up hastily.  "What an impolite suggestion for a hostess!"
+she murmured, pretending that the seriousness of the situation was now
+entirely past.  "Go back to school?  Dear me, that is what I must do
+this very minute!  Good-bye."  And kissing Esther hastily on the hair,
+Polly seized her hat and fled out the door.
+
+Yet halfway down the long stairs the girl hesitated and stopped for an
+instant as if intending to return.
+
+"Perhaps I ought to give up and be good for once," she whispered to
+herself.  "It won't be fair, and mother and Mollie and Betty may be
+angry with Esther for not telling.  Even if I have the right to get
+into trouble myself, I haven't the right to drag in other people.  But,
+oh dear! what fun it will be!  And with Esther for my duenna, things
+are sure to turn out all right."
+
+On the lowest steps Polly passed a small boy hobbling up toward
+Esther's room.  He was evidently a boy from the streets, as he was
+shabbily dressed and carried half a dozen papers under his arm.  But
+there was a hungry, eager look in his face that Polly remembered having
+seen sometimes in Esther's in those early days of her first coming to
+Mrs. Ashton's home.  So straightway she guessed that the boy was some
+child, whom Esther had discovered, with a talent and love for music and
+that she was giving him lessons in her leisure moments.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+PREPARATIONS FOR THE HOLIDAYS
+
+"But if you won't come, Betty dear, I shan't wish to give the party,"
+Meg Everett announced in a disappointed fashion.  "With Polly and
+Esther not to be here, there are so few of our old Camp Fire circle
+anyhow.  And you see I only wanted to have our club and a few of John's
+young men friends.  The idea is that we girls are to cook the entire
+dinner and then just talk or dance or play games afterwards.  It is not
+to be anything like a _real_ party."
+
+Betty smiled.  She and Meg and Mollie O'Neill were taking a winter
+tramp through the woods in the direction of the Sunrise Cabin, which
+had been closed for the past six months.
+
+"I should dearly love to come, Meg," Betty confessed.  "There is no use
+in my pretending that I shouldn't feel desperately lonely with the
+thought of your having such a good time without me.  But mother----"
+
+Mollie gave her arm an affectionate squeeze.  "There, Betty Ashton,
+that is just exactly what I knew you would say.  So I talked the whole
+matter over with your mother myself first.  And she declares that there
+isn't any reason why you should not accept Meg's invitation.  She is
+quite sure that your father would never have wished you not to be as
+happy as possible.  You have had trouble enough, goodness knows!   And
+then the extra disappointment of Polly's and Esther's remaining in New
+York!  I am glad enough Meg is going to give a party, and I hope there
+will be dozens of delightful things that Polly O'Neill will miss.  What
+on earth do you suppose has possessed her to want to stay on with
+Esther?"
+
+And Mollie sighed.  The three months without her sister may have passed
+by in greater peacefulness than with her, but then Polly always added a
+zest and flavor to existence.  And this was the longest time that the
+two girls had ever been separated.
+
+"Oh, I don't know.  She must have had some very good reason," Betty
+returned.  "Polly wrote me that she had, and now we must not believe
+that she did not love us as much as ever.  She wasn't able to explain
+the particulars just at present; but if we only trust her and forgive
+her some day we will understand."
+
+Mollie frowned.  With a much quieter and more amiable temperament than
+her twin, yet nearly eighteen years of intimate living with her had
+given her a pretty clear comprehension of her sister's character.
+Privately Mollie was puzzled over Polly's behavior and a good deal
+worried.  It was not like Polly to have conceived so sudden a devotion
+to Esther as to be unwilling to leave her for two weeks.  And her claim
+that she might not be particularly happy at home because of her
+stepbrother's presence was not convincing.  For Betty Ashton had
+invited Polly to be her guest.  No, Polly certainly had some special
+design in staying on in New York.  Of this Mollie was completely
+convinced.  But what the purpose was, neither from her own imaginings
+nor from any hint dropped by her sister's letters, could she get the
+slightest clue.
+
+The three girls had come to a narrow path through the woods, and for a
+little while were compelled to walk in single file.  For a few moments
+they were silent, each one busy with her own thoughts, Mollie happening
+to be in the middle.
+
+"I believe I'll ask Billy what he thinks," she remarked suddenly aloud.
+And then she bit her lips, blushing until the very tips of her ears
+grew warm.  For Meg and Betty were both laughing in the most ridiculous
+way.
+
+"Is it as bad as that, Mollie?" Meg teased.
+
+"Ask Billy what he thinks on one or all subjects, dear?" Betty queried.
+
+To both of which questions Mollie naturally deigned no reply.
+
+She and Billy Webster were extremely good friends.  Indeed, they seemed
+always to have been since the day of their first meeting, when she had
+bound up his injured head.  And this winter, with Polly away and Betty
+so busy and Meg wrapped up in keeping house and Sylvia spending all her
+spare hours in studying with Dr. Barton when not at school, she had
+enjoyed the walks and talks with the young man perhaps more than usual.
+But it was not because of their intimacy that she had considered
+putting this problem of Polly's failure to return home before him.  Her
+reason was that in their long conversations about her sister, Billy had
+always seemed not only to be interested in Polly but able to understand
+her disposition peculiarly well.  So it was stupid for her two friends
+to have taken her foolish exclamation as meaning anything personal.
+
+The next ten minutes Betty and Meg had rather a difficult time in
+making peace; for Mollie had not a strong sense of humor--a fact which
+both girls should have remembered.  But because she was always so
+gentle and kind herself, no one of her friends could bear the idea of
+hurting her feelings under any circumstances.
+
+However while Betty was in the midst of apologizing, Billy Webster
+himself came swinging along the same path from the opposite direction.
+He had his gun over his shoulder and half a dozen birds in his hand.
+
+"Who is it taking my name in vain?" he demanded of Betty.
+
+And Mollie had a dreadful moment of fearing that Betty might betray
+what they had been talking about.  However, as nothing of the kind
+happened, ten minutes later Meg and Betty were walking ahead deep in
+conversation about the party, while Mollie and Billy strolled after
+them only a few feet behind.
+
+The young man had been on his way into Woodford to divide the product
+of his day's hunting between Mrs. Ashton and Mrs. O'Neill.  Now,
+hearing that the girls were on a pilgrimage to Sunrise Cabin, he had
+been invited to accompany them.
+
+"No, it won't be like a meeting of our Camp Fire Club, Meg," Betty
+argued thoughtfully, after having satisfied herself by a glance over
+her shoulder that Mollie and Billy were too absorbed in each other to
+take any notice of them.  "I have been coming to our Camp Fire Club
+meetings all winter and because I am in mourning made no difference.
+But with John inviting his friends to your entertainment, why, I can't
+make up my mind yet, dear, whether I have the courage to come."
+
+Betty spoke bravely, but Meg slipped her arm across her friend's
+shoulder, holding her fast.  The two girls were closer friends now that
+Polly and Esther were both away and Meg understood that sometimes Betty
+did not feel so cheerful as she pretended.
+
+"John won't ask more than just one other fellow to keep him company, if
+we can have you with us in no other way," Meg conceded.  "You see,
+Betty, John is only to be at home for a few days.  As this is his
+senior year at college he wants to so some special work during the
+holidays.  But he likes you so much better than any of the other girls
+in Woodford, that I am quite sure----"
+
+But Betty had stuffed her fingers in her ears and was refusing to
+listen.  "It is bad enough to have you girls spoil me because I am in
+trouble, but when it comes to telling fibs I won't hear you.  Of course
+you know, Meg Everett, that I am not going to let you spoil everybody's
+pleasure on my account," she answered.
+
+Feeling the victory already won, Meg laughed.  "John is only to invite
+Billy Webster and Frank Wharton and Ralph Bowles and three or four of
+his Boy Scout camp.  By the way, Betty, one of the things I
+particularly wished to talk to you about is this: Shall we ask Anthony
+Graham?  He seems rather uncouth and the other fellows won't have
+anything to do with him.  But he is Nan's brother and she is so
+splendid I should hate to hurt her feelings."
+
+Betty shook her head.  "Anthony isn't the kind of person to invite
+though, Meg," she replied without a moment's hesitation.  "Of course he
+is trying to pull up and keep straight and I feel that we should do all
+we can to help him.  But inviting him to our parties and treating him
+as if he were exactly our equal!"  Betty's chin went up in the air and
+her face betrayed such a delicate, high-bred disdain that apparently
+Anthony's fate was immediately settled.
+
+The little party had now reached the familiar pine woods and there,
+only a few yards ahead, stood their deserted cabin.  The totem pole
+raised its gaunt head to greet them, still decorated with the history
+of their year in the woods together.  But the doors and windows of the
+cabin were barred with heavy planks.  Nowhere was there a sign of life.
+
+"Let's go back home at once, please, now that we have seen that
+everything is all right," Mollie begged a moment later.  "It always
+gives me the blues dreadfully to see Sunrise Cabin closed up and to
+know that perhaps no one of us shall ever live there again.  I never
+dreamed when we said good-bye to it last spring that we would not come
+out here often for club meetings and parties."
+
+"Parties?" Meg repeated.  Then she continued standing perfectly still
+and silent for several moments, although the others were moving about
+laughing and talking.
+
+"Parties!" she exclaimed again, speaking in such a loud tone that her
+companions turned to stare at her in surprise.
+
+"Betty Ashton, Mollie O'Neill and Billy Webster, if you and some of the
+others will help us, why can't we have our dinner party here at the
+cabin?  We are not planning to have it until New Year, so there will be
+plenty of time to make arrangements."
+
+However, Meg could get no further with her suggestion, for Betty and
+Mollie had both flung their arms about her and Betty exclaimed:
+
+"It will almost make me have a happy holiday time, Meg dearest, and I
+can never bear to refuse your invitation if we are to be together at
+Sunrise Cabin once again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE CASTLE OF LIFE
+
+It seemed to Esther Crippen that she had been sitting in the wings of
+the theater every evening for half her lifetime, although it had been
+only a week since Polly's initial appearance as the Fairy of the Woods
+in the dramatization of the ancient legend "The Castle of Life."
+
+At first she had spent every moment after Polly's departure from the
+dressing room in peering out from some inconspicuous corner at whatever
+action was taking place upon the stage.  Now, however, the play and
+even the actors themselves had become a comparatively old story.  Her
+interest centered itself chiefly in Polly--in Polly and the odd human
+characters that she saw everywhere about her.  Indeed, except for her
+nervousness and care of her friend, this week had been almost as
+absorbing to Esther Crippen as to the other girl.  For after the first
+two nights she had lost her fear that Polly might make an absolute
+failure of her part, and also the impression that either of them might
+be insulted or unkindly treated by the men and women about them.
+People had been rough perhaps, but thoroughly business-like.  And if
+Polly were told to hurry, or to move on, or corrected for some mistake
+in her work, it was all done in so impersonal a fashion that both girls
+had learned valuable lessons from the experience.  Esther had been
+amazed at the spirit in which Polly had accepted the discipline and
+hard work.  Perhaps, after all, she had been making a mountain out of a
+mole hill and this disobedience on Polly's part, wrong though it
+certainly was, might not result in anything so disastrous as she had at
+first feared.
+
+And there was no doubt that Polly was achieving a real success, one
+that surprised her and every one else.  Her part was only a small one,
+with but few words to speak; otherwise she could never have managed it
+with no previous experience and so little time for rehearsing.
+Nevertheless she had made one of those sudden yet conspicuous triumphs
+that are so frequent in stage life.  Sometimes it may happen with a
+girl playing the part of a maid, sometimes with a man who has not half
+a dozen sentences to recite.  It is the quality in the acting that
+counts.  And the manager in choosing Polly for the special role he had
+desired had chosen wisely.  For it was not so much the girl's method of
+playing that had won sympathy and applause, as her manner and
+appearance.
+
+And curiously enough, though Polly was frightened the first night of
+the performance, she was not so much so as on that evening of the Camp
+Fire play the previous year, before an audience of friends.
+
+Polly felt herself at the heart of her first great adventure.  The play
+itself, the other actors and actresses, the strangeness of her
+surroundings, all occupied her to the forgetting of her own
+individuality.  It seemed as though she were only living out a kind of
+dream.  Nothing was real, nothing was actual about her.  The audience
+did not terrify her, nor the lights, nor the darkness, nor the queer
+smell of dust and paint and artificiality, that is a necessary part of
+the background of stage life.
+
+Perhaps the girl had found her element.  For there is for each one of
+us a place in this world, some niche into which one really fits.  And
+though this place may seem crowded, or ugly, or undesirable to other
+people, if it should be our own, it holds a feeling of comfort and of
+possession that no other spot can.
+
+But Polly had not been thinking of niches or elements or anything of
+the kind either tonight or during the week past.  All of her being was
+too deeply absorbed in the interest of the play and the actors and her
+own little part.
+
+At the present moment she was in hiding behind a piece of scenery,
+eagerly awaiting the cue for her own entrance; yet she was as keenly
+intent upon each detail of the acting taking place upon the stage as if
+tonight it were a first experience.
+
+The players happened to be the two persons who had been kindest and
+most helpful to her in the company.  And one of them one was the
+brown-eyed girl whose lead she had followed on the day of her own
+engagement.  Polly had been glad to make the discovery later that this
+same girl had been engaged to play the part of Grazioso's grandmother
+in "The Castle of Life."  The other actor was the star, a young man of
+about twenty-six or seven, who was impersonating Grazioso, the hero of
+the fairy story.
+
+The stage was in semi-darkness, while the grandmother related to the
+boy the tale of her first meeting with the fairies.  A small, shabby
+room revealed a low fire burning in the grate.  In an armchair sat the
+old woman, while her grandson lay on the floor at her feet with his
+head resting upon his hand.
+
+"There are two fairies," said the grandmother, "two great fairies--the
+Fairy of the Water and the Fairy of the Woods.  Ten years ago I had
+gone out at daybreak to catch the crabs asleep in the sand, when I saw
+a halcyon flying gently towards the shore.  The halcyon is a sacred
+bird, so I never stirred for fear I should scare it away.  And at the
+same time from a cleft in the mountain I saw a beautiful green adder
+appear and come gliding along the sands toward the bird.  When they
+were near each other the adder twined itself around the neck of the
+halcyon as if it were embracing it tenderly.  Then I saw a great black
+cat, who could be nothing else than a magician, hiding itself behind a
+rock close to me.  And scarcely had the halcyon and adder embraced than
+the cat sprang on the innocent pair.  This was my time to act.  I
+seized him in spite of his struggles and with the knife I used for
+opening oysters I cut off the monster's head, paws and tail.  And as
+soon as I had thrown the creature's body into the sea, before me stood
+two beautiful ladies, one with a crown of white feathers and the other
+with a scarf made of snake's skins.  They were, as I have told you, the
+Fairy of the Water and the Fairy of the Woods."
+
+With these words, Polly moved a few steps nearer the place set for her
+entrance.  On the opposite side she could see the other girl who
+impersonated the water fairy, also ready to make her entrance.  Tonight
+was New Year's eve and the house was unusually crowded.
+
+But the grandmother was continuing her speech.
+
+"Enchanted by a wicked Jinn, they were obliged to remain bird and snake
+until some hand should restore them to liberty.  To me they owed
+freedom and power.  'Ask what thou wilt,' they said, 'and thy wishes
+shall be fulfilled."
+
+"I thought how I was old and had too hard a life to wish for it over
+again.  But the day would come when nothing would be too good for thee,
+my child."  The old woman leaned over, stroking her grandson's dark
+hair.  "The Fairy of the Woods gave me a scale from the snake's skin
+and the Fairy of the Water a small white feather from her crown.  They
+are hidden in a box under some rags.  Open the box and thou wilt find
+the scale and the feather."
+
+The boy then crossed the stage and a moment later handed the box to the
+old woman, who appeared too ill to leave her chair.
+
+After bending over and listening to her instructions, he stepped
+forward nearer the footlights.  There in the center of the room was a
+bowl of water in which he placed the feather and the scale.
+
+"Wish for thyself anything thou desirest, fortune, greatness, wit,
+power," murmurs the old woman.  "But embrace me first, as I feel that I
+am dying."
+
+But Grazioso did not approach either to embrace or ask the old woman's
+blessing.
+
+"I wish my grandmother to live forever!" he cried.  "Appear, Fairy of
+the Woods.  Appear, Fairy of the Water!"
+
+And now in perfect silence Polly O'Neill made her entrance.  She moved
+very slowly forward, so slim and young and tall, with such big,
+dark-blue eyes, and such slender, elfish grace that she did not look
+like a real flesh-and-blood girl.
+
+The audience stirred, and a little breath of appreciation moved through
+it, which Polly was almost learning to expect.
+
+She wore her own black hair unbound and hanging loose below her
+shoulders.  It was made blacker by the wreath of leaves that encircled
+her head.  She was dressed in an olive-green gown of some soft,
+clinging material and a scarf of snake's skin was fastened over her
+shoulder.
+
+The Fairy of the Water followed Polly.  Her gown was white with a blue
+scarf, and she was small and blonde.  She was a pretty girl, but
+somehow there was no suggestion of the fairy about her.  One could see
+the same type of girl any time, standing behind a counter in a shop, or
+dancing at a party of young people.
+
+Polly's grace and her ardent, unconventional temperament made it easy
+to understand why the attention should be focused upon her during this
+single scene.  Besides, she had one long speech to deliver.
+
+This was the moment when the girl felt her only real nervousness.  For
+always there was the uncertainty as to whether her voice would be
+strong and full enough to be heard throughout the theater.  Tonight and
+for the first time she hesitated for a second.  Yet no one noticed it,
+except the actors near her and Esther, who had crept forth, for a
+closer view in spite of the stage regulations.
+
+"Have you forgotten your lines, child?" the leading man whispered so
+quietly that no one could overhear.
+
+But Polly only smiled, with a faint shake of her graceful head.
+
+"Here we are, my child," she began the next instant, speaking in clear,
+girlish tones that showed nothing of indecision or embarrassment.
+
+"We have heard what you said and your wish does you credit.  We can
+prolong your grandmother's life for some time.  But to make her live
+forever you must find The Castle of Life."
+
+"Madam," replied Grazioso, "I will start at once."
+
+"It is four long days' journey from here," the Fairy of the Woods
+continued.  "If you can accomplish each of these four days' journey
+without turning out of your road and if, on arriving at the castle, you
+can answer the three questions that an invisible voice will ask you,
+you will receive there all that you desire.  For there the fountain of
+immortality will be found."
+
+Then slowly the great stage curtain descended.  And this was the end of
+Polly's part in the performance, though one more ordeal was to follow.
+And though she welcomed this, Polly also dreaded it more than anything
+else.  Always a curtain call came at the close of this scene, when she
+and the Fairy of the Water, each holding a hand of Grazioso's, must
+step forth to the footlights and for an instant face the audience,
+smiling their thanks for the applause.
+
+But Polly had never been able to summon a smile, for at this moment she
+had always become self-conscious.  The glamour and the excitement of
+the theater suddenly deserted her and she felt not like a fairy or
+anything fantastic, but only like Polly O'Neill, a very untrained and
+frightened girl who was deceiving her family and friends to have this
+first taste of stage life, and who might suffer almost any kind of
+consequences: imprisonment in some boarding school, Polly feared, where
+she might never again be allowed any liberty or an equal imprisonment
+in Woodford, with no mention of the theater made in her presence as
+long as she lived.  For Polly could not determine to what lengths her
+mother's anger and disapproval of her conduct might lead her.  And she
+did mean to make her confession and face the results as soon as her two
+weeks' engagement was over.
+
+Therefore tonight she kept an even tighter clasp on Grazioso's hand
+than usual, her knees were shaking so absurdly.  And all the faces in
+the audience were swimming before her, as though they had no features
+but eyes.  Then suddenly the girl grew rigid with surprise, uncertainty
+and fear.
+
+In the second row just under the footlights she had discovered a face
+that was strangely familiar.  And yet could it be possible that this
+person of all others should be here in New York City and in the theater
+tonight, instead of in the village of Woodford?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE RECOGNITION
+
+Esther was not waiting in the accustomed place where Polly had
+previously found her when she came off the stage.  On her way to the
+dressing room she shivered a little, missing the coat that her friend
+was in the habit of wrapping about her shoulders.  The night was
+extremely cold and the back of a theater is nearly always breezy.
+
+Polly hurried faster than usual to her room--a small dark one at the
+end of a passage-way.  But even here there was no sign of Esther.  What
+could have become of her?  She was not apt to be talking with any of
+the members of the company; for both girls had decided that it was
+wiser to make themselves as inconspicuous as possible.
+
+Well, she must do her best to get out of her fairy costume and back
+into sensible garments by her own efforts.  Esther would be coming
+along in a few moments.  She could not stand idle with her teeth fairly
+chattering and those ridiculous little chills chasing themselves all
+over her.  Wouldn't it be too absurd to take cold at this particular
+time and so make a failure of her adventure?  For she would thus heap
+all the family disapproval and punishment upon her own head and incur
+the righteous indignation of everybody in the company by having to
+resign her part.
+
+Would any one ever have imagined that a garment could be so difficult
+to unfasten as this one she was now incased in?  For of course the
+stiffness and shakiness of Polly's fingers came from the zero
+temperature in her dressing room and not in the least from the
+momentary fright she had received from her supposed recognition of a
+face in the audience.  Undoubtedly she had been mistaken.  Yet why
+should she have chosen to believe that she saw about the most unlikely
+person of her acquaintance?  A guilty conscience should have conjured
+up some ghost who had more right to be present.
+
+Polly finally did succeed in getting into her street clothes without
+assistance; and though five, ten minutes passed, Esther did not appear
+in the dressing room.  Nor was she anywhere in the hall, since Polly
+had several times thrust her head out the door to look for her.
+
+Polly was a little uneasy, though assuredly nothing serious could have
+happened to Esther.  Esther had been very good to her during these past
+days, so staunch and loyal, never reproaching her or arguing once she
+had become convinced that Polly's mind was made up, and taking such
+wonderful care of her, guarding her so closely!  If ever there came a
+time when her mother, or Mollie, or Betty should attempt to blame
+Esther for her part in this escapade, Polly had determined that they
+should understand the situation in its true light.  And some day she
+might be able to return Esther's allegiance and devotion.  For always
+the opportunity to serve a friend will come if one is sufficiently on
+the lookout for it.
+
+The moment that she left her dressing room Polly ran directly into
+Esther, who was hurrying toward her.
+
+"Oh, Polly dear," she said, "I hope you haven't been worried, though I
+have been uneasy enough about you.  Do come back into your room for a
+moment.  There is something I want to tell you that no one else must
+hear."
+
+Esther looked so excited and nervous that Polly slipped an arm
+comfortingly about her.  "Don't mind if anybody has said anything rude
+or been horrid, please," she whispered.  "You know we promised each
+other not to take the disagreeable things seriously."
+
+"Oh no, it is nothing like that.  It is about you," the older girl
+explained.
+
+Polly smiled.  "The disagreeable things usually are about me."  She
+looked so absurdly young and wilful and charming that Esther felt
+herself suddenly willing to champion her cause against any opposition.
+Of course Polly had done wrong, but the mistake had been made and to
+frustrate her ambition now could do no possible good.
+
+"I don't think you understand, Polly; you can't of course.  But Billy
+Webster was in the audience just now and recognized you.  He says that
+Mollie was afraid there was something the matter and----"
+
+"Billy Webster's opinions are not of the least interest to me.  Do
+let's hurry home, Esther.  It is almost ten o'clock and though we can
+take the street car straight to your door, we have never been out this
+late before."
+
+"But Billy says he _must_ see you.  He is waiting outside.  He says he
+means to tell your mother and Mollie what you are doing unless you
+promise to return home tomorrow.  He says that if you won't promise he
+may telegraph them tonight, so your mother can come and get you
+tomorrow.  I think you had better see him."
+
+Suddenly Polly flung her arms about her friend's neck and began crying
+like a disappointed child.  One never could count on Polly's doing what
+might be expected of her.  She had had the boldness of defy opposition
+and to act successfully for a week on the professional stage; yet now
+when she most needed her nerve she was breaking down completely.
+
+"I always have hated that Billy Webster," she sobbed, "from the first
+moment I saw him.  What possible reason or right can he have to come
+spying on me in this fashion?  If he tells mother what I am doing now
+and does not give me a chance to confess, she will never forgive me.
+Neither will Mollie nor Betty nor any of the people I care about.  Rose
+and Miss McMurtry will never speak to me.  I shall be turned out of our
+Camp Fire Club.  Of course I know I deserve it.  But that Billy Webster
+should be the person to bring about my punishment is too much!
+Besides, I can't give up my part now.  Surely, Esther, you can see
+that.  Acting a week longer won't hurt me any more and----"
+
+"I think we had better see Mr. Webster, anyhow, dear," Esther insisted
+quietly.  "Perhaps we can persuade him not to tell, or else to give you
+the first opportunity."
+
+Hastily Polly dried her eyes.  She looked very white and frail as they
+went out of the room together.
+
+In a secluded corner not far from the stage door they found Billy
+Webster waiting for them.  His face was pale under his country tan.
+His blue eyes, that sometimes were charmingly humorous, showed no sign
+of humor now.  If ever there was so youthful a figure of a stern and
+upright judge, he might well have stood for the model.
+
+Polly struggled bravely to maintain her dignity.
+
+"What is your decision, Miss O'Neill?" he inquired, without wasting any
+time by an enforced greeting.  "I presume Miss Crippen has told you
+what I have made up my mind to do."
+
+Amiability was one of Esther's dominant traits of character; yet she
+would have liked to shake Billy Webster until his teeth chattered or
+suppress him in almost any way.  After all, what right had he to take
+this lofty tone with Polly?  He was not a member of her family, not
+even her friend.  Just because he had known all of them in their Camp
+Fire days in the woods and was devoted to Mrs. Wharton and to Mollie
+was not a sufficient excuse.
+
+Therefore Polly's unexpected meekness of manner and tone was the more
+surprising--and dangerous.
+
+"How did you happen to come to New York and to the theater, Billy?" she
+queried, ignoring his use of the "Miss."  Frequently in times past they
+had called each other by their first names, when good feeling happened
+to be existing between them.
+
+Instantly Billy looked a little more on the defensive.  "I--I had to
+come to New York on business," he explained sullenly.  "And Mollie had
+been telling me that she was kind of uneasy about you and that she felt
+there must be some reason you wouldn't give why you did not wish to
+come home for the holidays."
+
+"So you undertook to play detective and find out?" Polly announced in
+the cool, even tones that made Billy hot with anger and a sense of
+injustice.
+
+He was perfectly sure that he was right in his attitude toward her.
+She had been disobedient and audacious beyond his wildest conception,
+even of her.  And yet she had a skilful fashion of making the other
+fellow appear in the wrong.
+
+"I told Mollie that I would call on you and Esther," he returned,
+relapsing into his old-time familiarity.  "You see, I told her that I
+was sure things were quite all right, but I wanted to convince her too.
+I didn't think you would mind seeing me.  I thought you might even be
+glad to hear about your Woodford friends.  So as Mollie gave me your
+address, I went out to your house at about eight o'clock.  The maid
+told me that you had gone to the theater, told me which one.  Of course
+I just supposed that you had gone to see a show.  And that was pretty
+bad for two young girls!  But when I got here and the curtain went up
+and you came out!--why, Polly, I just couldn't believe it at first, and
+then I got to thinking of how your mother and Mollie would feel and
+what might happen!"  And Billy's voice shook in a very human and
+attractive fashion.
+
+Instantly Polly's hand was laid coaxingly on the young man's coat
+sleeve.  "But, Billy, seeing as now I have been and gone and done it
+already, why, think of me in any way that you please.  Only don't tell
+on me for another week.  The play is to last only through the holidays.
+And I promise on my word of honor to come home as soon as it is over
+and to tell mother every single thing."
+
+"Word of honor?" Billy repeated slightingly.  And of course, though
+Polly deserved her punishment his inflection was both rude and cruel.
+
+Up to this moment the little party of three persons had been entirely
+uninterrupted.  Now Esther heard some one coming quickly toward them.
+And turning instantly she understood the impression that this scene
+might make.  The man was the leading actor of the company, Richard
+Hunt, who in a quiet way had shown an interest and an attitude of
+protection toward Polly.  Now observing a strange young man, and
+Polly's evident agitation, it was but natural that he should suppose
+that some one was trying to annoy her.
+
+Esther flung herself into the breach.  Not for anything must a scene be
+permitted to take place!  And she could guess at Billy Webster's
+scornful disregard of a man who was an actor.  Billy was a country
+fellow with little experience of life, and broad-mindedness was not a
+conspicuous trait of his character.
+
+Esther never knew just exactly how she managed it, but in another
+moment she had confided the entire story of Polly's audacity to Mr.
+Hunt, Billy Webster's place in it, and his present intention of
+bringing retribution upon them.  She knew there was but little time for
+her story; for Mr. Hunt might be compelled to leave them on receiving
+his curtain call at any moment.  In a very surprising and good-humored
+fashion however he seemed to understand the situation at once.
+
+"I had an idea that Miss O'Neill was new to this business," he said;
+"or you would both have realized that it is not wise for a girl so
+young as she is to come to the theater without her mother or some much
+older woman to look after her.  But I believe I can appreciate
+everybody's point of view in this matter.  So why wouldn't it be well
+to have Miss O'Neill telegraph her mother herself and ask that she come
+down to New York tomorrow.  She could say there was nothing serious, so
+as not to frighten her.  And then of course they could talk things over
+together and decide what was best without any interference."
+
+But before any answer could follow his suggestion a bell sounded and
+the older man was obliged to hurry away.
+
+Esther breathed a sigh of relief.
+
+"Dear me, why had not one of us thought of this way out?" she asked.
+"Surely, Billy, you can't object to allowing Mrs. Wharton to be the
+judge in this matter?"
+
+Billy nodded.  "Of course that is the best plan."
+
+"And you, Polly?"
+
+Polly had begun to cry again.  "I want to see my mother right this
+minute," she confessed.  And then, slipping out of the stage door, she
+left Esther and Billy to follow immediately after her and in silence to
+escort her safely home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+SUNRISE CABIN AGAIN
+
+It was New Year's night.  Sunrise Cabin was no longer an empty and
+deserted place, but golden lights shone through the windows, making a
+circle of brightness outside the door.
+
+From the inside came the sound of voices and laughter and music and the
+clatter of dishes.
+
+Slowly a figure approached the door.  It was after seven o'clock and a
+sharply cold evening with a heavy snow on the ground, so there could be
+small comfort in loitering.  Yet when the figure reached its evident
+destination, instead of knocking or making an effort to enter, it
+hesitated, stopped, turned and walked away for a few steps and then
+came back again.  The second time, however, summoning a sudden courage,
+the arm shot forth, and there was a single rap on the door.  The rap
+was so imperative that in spite of the rival noises inside, the door
+opened quickly.  Then the newcomer entered and for another moment stood
+hesitating in even greater bewilderment.
+
+The great room seemed to be twinkling with a hundred bayberry candles,
+sending forth a delicious woodland fragrance.  The walls were covered
+with pine branches and the big fireplace was piled as high with burning
+fagots and pine cones as safety permitted.  A long table standing in
+the center of the room was beautifully and yet oddly decorated, and
+upon it dinner was just about to be served.
+
+Resting in the middle of its uncovered surface were three short and
+slender pine logs of the same general height and size and crossed at
+the top, while swinging from this trident was a brightly polished
+copper kettle, piled high tonight with every kind of fruit and with
+giant clusters of white and purple grapes suspended over its sides.
+Encircling the centerpiece, made not of real wood of course but of
+paper bonbons, were three groups of logs representing the insignia of
+the three orders of the Camp Fire, the wood-gatherer's logs having no
+flame, the fire-maker's a small one, while the torch-bearer's flame of
+twisted colored paper seemed to glow as though it were in truth of
+fire.  The mats on the table were embroidered in various Camp Fire
+emblems--a bundle of seven fagots, a single pine tree, or a disk
+representing the sun.  And at either end of the long table three
+candles had lately been lighted, while standing up around it at their
+appointed places were about twenty guests, the girls dressed in their
+ceremonial costumes, the young men as Boy Scouts.
+
+The effect of the entire scene was so brilliant and so unusual that
+there was small wonder that the latest comer was overwhelmed.  He
+fumbled awkwardly with his hat, cleared his throat, his face so
+crimsoning with embarrassment that actual tears were forced out of his
+eyes.  And then just as the young man was praying that the earth might
+open and swallow him up, a girl came forward from the indeterminate
+mass of persons, who appeared to be swimming in a mist before him, and
+held out her hand.
+
+"I am so glad to see you, Mr. Graham.  Nan and I were beginning to be
+afraid you would not be able to come," she said cordially.  "But you
+are just in time, as we are only sitting down to the table this very
+minute."
+
+And Meg Everett then led her final guest down what seemed to him a
+mile's length of table, placing him between two persons, whom at the
+moment he did not suppose that he had ever seen.  And before he could
+quite recover his senses there was an unexpected burst of music and
+then a cheer that filled every inch of the cabin space.
+
+"Wo-he-lo for aye, Wo-he-lo for aye, Wo-he-lo, Wo-he-lo, Wo-he-lo for
+aye!  Wo-he-lo for work, Wo-he-lo for health, Wo-he-lo, Wo-he-lo,
+Wo-he-lo for Love."
+
+And then with laughter Meg Everett's New Year dinner guests took their
+places at the table and in the pause Anthony Graham had a chance to
+pull himself together.  To his relief he found that Miss McMurtry was
+seated on his left side, and at least they were acquaintances.  For
+Miss McMurtry had also come to live in the old Ashton house and often
+passed the young man on the stairs, nodding good-night or good-morning.
+Then he had put up some book-shelves for her in her room and moved the
+furniture to her satisfaction.  So, perhaps the Camp Fire party might
+not be so wretchedly uncomfortable with one person near with whom he
+might exchange an occasional word.
+
+For just what the young man's emotions were this evening, no one except
+a person placed in a similar position could understand.  Perfectly well
+did he appreciate that Meg had asked him to her dinner only because of
+her loyalty and affection for his sister, Nan, as a member of her same
+Camp Fire Club.  The brothers of the other girls had been invited, Jim
+Meade, Frank Wharton and, of course, John Everett, besides others of
+his friends.  So to have left him out might have been to hurt Nan's
+feelings.  His sister was both proud and sensitive over his efforts to
+make a better position for himself in the village.  Yet should he have
+taken advantage of Meg's kindness and accepted her invitation?  Anthony
+was by no means certain.  This same question had been keeping him awake
+for several nights and even after having written his hostess that she
+might expect him to appear he had delayed his approach until the last
+minute.
+
+Assuredly the other young men would not enjoy his presence.  They might
+be coldly polite, but nothing more could be expected.  For no one could
+be more conscious than Anthony was at this time in his life of the
+difference between him and other men of his age, who had the advantages
+of birth and education.  Actually he could feel the grime of his own
+hands as he clutched them nervously together under the table.  Not all
+the scrubbing of the past hour could altogether rid them of the soot
+and dust that came of making fires and sweeping office floors.  And his
+clothes, although brushed until they were spotless, were worn almost
+threadbare in places.  The very shirt that Nan had washed and ironed
+for him, had had to have the frayed ends trimmed away from the
+wrist-bands.
+
+Anthony glanced across the table.  There were Nan's dark eyes smiling
+at him bravely.  She did not look in the least ashamed of him.  And as
+for Nan herself why, she was as pretty a Camp Fire girl as any one at
+the table.  Wearing their Council Fire costumes, each girl decorated
+only with the honor beads which she had won by her own efforts, the
+poorer maids and the rich ones were equally attractive.  For there were
+none of the differences in toilet which any other kind of entertainment
+might have revealed.
+
+But Nan was not only smiling at her brother, she was nodding at him and
+trying to attract his attention.  Evidently she wished him to glance
+away from Miss McMurtry to his companion on the other side.  And
+Anthony finally did manage to turn shyly half way around.
+
+Then with a sudden feeling almost of happiness he discovered that Betty
+Ashton was on his right.  She did not happen to be looking toward him
+at the moment, but was talking to John Everett with more animation than
+he had ever before seen her show.
+
+Betty had no knowledge of Anthony's having been invited to Meg's Camp
+Fire dinner.  His invitation had not come so soon perhaps as the others
+had received theirs, and afterwards for several days he had had no
+opportunity for conversation with her.  For of course living in Betty's
+house gave him no right to any pretense of friendship with her.
+
+Yet the moments were passing and she must by this time have become
+conscious of his presence.  Miss McMurtry had called him by name
+several times and no human being could be entirely oblivious of a
+person so near, unless under some peculiar stress of emotion.
+
+Anthony felt his former nervousness leaving him.  He was no longer
+blushing; his face had become white and a little stern.  So that when
+Betty finally turned to speak to the young man she had a curious
+impression that his face was unfamiliar, it wore so different an
+expression from any that she had ever seen on it before.  Betty had
+been conscious of Anthony's presence from the instant of his taking his
+place beside her and in failing to recognize him had not deliberately
+intended being rude or unkind.  At first she had been amazed and a
+little chagrined by his presence, for after what she had said to Meg
+she had not dreamed of the young man's being included among the guests.
+Yet this was Meg's entertainment and not hers, and of course she had no
+right to feel or show offense.  Only she and John Everett happened to
+be having such an interesting talk at the moment of Anthony's
+appearance, and assuredly John shared her conviction about the
+newcomer!  One could be kind to the young fellow of course, without
+admitting him within the intimate circle of friendship.  And Betty
+Ashton, although she would never have confessed it, had always been
+greatly influenced by John Everett's opinions and personality.  He was
+such a big blond giant, older and handsomer and more a man of the world
+than any other college fellow in Woodford.  She was flattered, too,
+because he had never failed on his return for holidays to show her more
+attention than any other girl in the village.  He might have other
+friendships outside of his own home; of this she could know nothing,
+but at the present time this thought only made him the more agreeable.
+Therefore it was annoying that she might be expected to waste a part of
+her evening on a young fellow for whom she felt no personal interest,
+only good will.  Betty herself was not conscious of the condescension
+in her attitude, but why did she find it so difficult to begin a
+conversation with the newcomer or even to greet him?
+
+Anthony should at least understand that it was exceedingly ill mannered
+of him to keep staring down into his plate when he must have become
+aware that she was now ready to talk with him.  But what should she say
+first?  Having failed to notice a person's existence for some time
+makes an ordinary "Good evening" appear a bit ridiculous.
+
+"How do you do, Mr. Graham?" Betty began half shyly, putting more
+cordiality into her manner than usual in an effort to atone for her
+former lack of courtesy.
+
+Then for the briefest space Anthony glanced up at her quietly, his
+grave eyes studying hers, until Betty felt her own eyelids flutter and
+was grateful for the length of her dark lashes which swept like a cloud
+before her vision.  For actually she was blushing in the most absurd
+and guilty fashion, as though she had done something for which she
+should feel ashamed.
+
+"Good evening," Anthony returned, and during the rest of the dinner
+party he never voluntarily addressed a single remark to her.
+
+Betty need not have been afraid that he might interfere with her
+opportunity for conversation with John Everett.  For although Anthony
+answered politely any questions that she put to him and listened to
+whatever she wished to say, the greater part of his time he devoted to
+talking with Miss McMurtry and to pursuing his own train of thought.
+
+For if the young man had originally been doubtful as to whether it was
+wise for him to accept Meg Everett's invitation, he was glad now with
+all his heart.  Just what this evening was giving him he had needed.
+Glancing up and down the table, his own resolution was thereby
+strengthened.  If there had been moments when he had wavered, when it
+had seemed easier to slip back into his old way of life and to enjoy
+the companions who were always ready to join hands, he could hereafter
+recall this experience and Betty's treatment of him, as well as the
+sight of the other young men guests.
+
+Some day there should be another reckoning.  These fellows were largely
+what their fathers had made them; they had birth, schooling, the
+influences of cultured homes.  But out in the big world a man's own
+grit and will and ability to keep on working in the face of every
+difficulty counted in the long run.  Anthony clenched his teeth,
+feeling his backbone actually stiffen with the strength of his
+resolution.  Then he had the humor and good sense to laugh at himself
+and to begin taking more pleasure in his surroundings.
+
+Here were all the Camp Fire girls whom his sister had talked and
+written so much about, excepting the two whose absence the others were
+lamenting, Polly and Esther.  Here also was the German professor, who
+had lately moved into the Ashton house, sitting on the further side of
+Miss McMurtry and certainly absorbing all of her attention that he
+possibly dared.  But Anthony did not mind; he had a kind of fellow
+feeling for Herr Crippen, who was poor and evidently not of much
+interest or importance in the Lady Betty's estimation.  There at the
+farther end of the table must be Miss Rose Dyer, the Camp Fire Guardian
+whom Nan cared for so deeply, and she certainly was quite as pretty as
+his sister had said.  So why should young Dr. Barton be staring at her
+so severely?  Miss Dyer was only laughing and talking idly with Frank
+Wharton; and every now and then she turned to smile and speak to the
+little girl who sat close beside her.  This must be Faith, the youngest
+of the Sunrise girls, whose mother had lately died and who was now
+living with Miss Dyer.
+
+Anthony smiled unexpectedly, so that Betty, who happened to be glancing
+toward him at the moment, was vexed over his ability to amuse himself.
+He had only just guessed why Dr. Barton found it necessary to regard
+Miss Dyer so sternly.  Anthony felt that he would like to make friends
+with this young men.  He was evidently somewhat narrow and puritanical,
+but already had offered to assist him with any of his studies should he
+need help.  And Anthony meant to take advantage of his offer and to
+interest him if he could; for Dr. Barton was just the kind of a friend
+he would like to know intimately in these early days of his struggle.
+
+Dinner was finally over, and, stupidly enough, as the guests began
+leaving the table Anthony Graham felt his own shyness and awkwardness
+returning.  They were intending to dance for the rest of the evening,
+and dancing was another of the graces that had been left out of his
+education.  However, he could find himself an inconspicuous corner
+somewhere, and it would be good enough fun to look on.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+"LIFE'S LITTLE IRONIES"
+
+"Mollie O'Neill, if you don't tell me what you and Billy Webster have
+been whispering about all evening and why you look so worried, I don't
+think I can bear it a moment longer," Betty Ashton insisted, having at
+last found her friend alone for a moment, while the other girls and men
+were clearing the living room for the dance.
+
+"There isn't anything to tell.  At least there really is, but I have
+not been told just what," Mollie sighed in return.
+
+"Then of course it's Polly?"
+
+Mollie nodded.  "Early this morning before any of us were awake a
+telegram arrived from Polly begging mother to come to New York at once.
+Polly said she wasn't ill and there was nothing for us to worry over,
+but just the same Sylvia and I have been worried nearly to death all
+day.  For mother got off within a few hours.  Then late this evening
+Billy Webster appears in Woodford after his visit in New York.  And
+though he tells me that he saw Polly and Esther and has confessed that
+he knows why Polly telegraphed for mother, he won't give me the least
+satisfaction about anything.  Can you make any suggestion, Betty dear?
+What difficulty do you suppose Polly has gotten into this time?  For
+certainly it is Polly and not Esther; Esther would never be absurd."
+
+Mollie lowered her voice as several of their friends were approaching.
+
+"Please don't speak of this, Betty.  Mother left word that we were not
+to mention it outside the family until she learned exactly what was the
+matter.  But of course she said that I might tell you."
+
+Before Betty could reply John Everett had invited her to dance.
+
+But slowly she shook her head.  "I can't, John.  I know you will think
+it foolish; perhaps it is.  Of course I have come to Meg's party and
+enjoyed it very much.  And yet, well, somehow I don't feel quite like
+dancing.  You understand, don't you?"
+
+John acquiesced.  He was disappointed, and yet felt himself able to
+understand almost anything that Betty wished him to, when she looked at
+him with that appealing light in her gray eyes and that rose flush in
+her cheeks.
+
+"Never mind," he returned; "I'll find seats for us somewhere, where we
+can manage to talk and yet watch the others."
+
+Betty smiled.  It was agreeable to be so sought after, and yet under
+the circumstances quite out of the question.
+
+"You will please find me a place where I can watch, but not with you.
+This is your party, remember.  Meg will expect you and every man to do
+his duty," she replied.
+
+So after a little further discussion Betty found herself seated upon a
+kind of miniature throne, which John had made for her by piling some
+sofa cushions upon an old divan.  Behind her was a background of cedar
+and pine branches decorating the walls and just above her head
+flickered the lights of candles from a pair of brass sconces.
+
+Betty wore her red brown hair parted in the middle and in two heavy
+braids, one falling over each shoulder, while around her forehead was a
+blue and silver band with the three white feathers, the insignia of her
+title of "Princess" in their Camp Fire Club.  Her dress was cut a
+little low in the throat and about it were strung seven chains of honor
+beads.
+
+For a little while at least she might have found interest in watching
+the others dance had she not been worried about Polly.  She was uneasy
+and it was stupid to have been given this opportunity to think; for
+thinking could do no possible good.  Whatever mischief Polly had gotten
+into was sure to be beyond one's wildest imagination.  It would be much
+more agreeable if she might have some one to talk with her and so
+distract her attention.
+
+And there was one other guest beside herself who was not dancing.
+Betty flushed uncomfortably.  It must appear strange to the others to
+see Anthony sitting only a short distance away from her and yet paying
+no more attention to her presence than if they were upon opposite sides
+of the world.
+
+Once or twice Betty looked graciously toward the young man, intending
+to smile an invitation to him to sit near her, should he show the
+inclination.  For possibly he was too much embarrassed to make the
+first move.  She must remember that he had had no one to teach him good
+manners and that he was always both shy and awkward in her presence.
+
+However, at present he seemed totally unaware of her existence and not
+in the least requiring entertainment.  For he was watching the dancers
+with such profound concentration that apparently his entire attention
+was absorbed by them.
+
+The girl had an unusually good opportunity for studying the young man's
+face.  She had not noticed until tonight how thin he was and how clear
+and finely cut his features.  There was no trace of his Italian mother
+left, save in his black hair and in the curious glow which his skin
+showed underneath its pallor.  His nose was big--too big, Betty
+thought--and his lips closed and firm.  He had a kind of hungry look.
+Hungry for what? the girl wondered.  Then she had a sudden feeling of
+compunction.  Anthony might sometimes even be hungry for food, he
+worked so hard, made so little money and was so busy by day and night.
+Before tonight she might have helped him without his knowing or even
+caring, if he had guessed her purpose.  But after tonight?  Well, Betty
+felt reasonably sure that she and Anthony could never be upon exactly
+the same footing again.  For somehow she had hurt him more than she had
+intended, not realizing that any one could be at once so humble and so
+proud.  And as she had made one of those mistakes that one can never
+apologize for, there was no point in dwelling on it any longer.  Only
+she did regret by this time that deep down in her heart there must
+still linger her old narrow attitude toward money and good birth.  She
+was poor enough herself now, and yet in her case, as in so many others,
+had it not made her feel all the more pride in the distinction of her
+family?  Assuredly she had often whispered to herself that poverty did
+not matter when one bore a distinguished name.
+
+Betty smothered a sigh and a yawn.  It was tiresome to be sitting there
+thinking and reproaching herself when the others were having such a
+good time.  How splendidly Billy Webster and Mollie danced together!
+He was so strong and dictatorial, so certain of his own judgment and
+opinions.  And Mollie so gentle and yielding!  She smiled over her
+foolish romancing, and yet there was no use pretending that they would
+not make a suitable match should things turn out that way.  Mollie and
+Polly might possibly never be exactly what they had been to each other
+in the past, and Mrs. Wharton had re-married, and Sylvia would soon be
+going away to study nursing.
+
+But some one was passing close by and trying to attract her attention.
+Betty waved her hand, but when she had gone frowned a little anxiously.
+
+Edith Norton was dancing with the friend whom she had persuaded Meg to
+ask to her Camp Fire dinner, although none of the rest of the girls
+liked him.  He was a good deal older than their other young men
+acquaintances and a stranger to most of them, having only come to
+Woodford in the past six months and opened a drug store.  But he had
+been entirely devoted to Edith since, and of course as she was nearly
+twenty she should know her own mind.  Notwithstanding, Betty felt
+uneasy and uncomfortable.  They had been hearing things not to
+Frederick Howard's credit in the village, and Edith had always been
+unlike the rest of their Sunrise Camp Fire girls.  She was vainer and
+more frivolous and dreadfully tired of working in a millinery shop in
+Woodford.  This much she had confided to Betty after coming to live in
+the Ashton house.  And both Rose Dyer and Miss McMurtry were afraid
+that Edith might for this reason accept the first opportunity that
+apparently offered to make life easier for her.  So they had asked
+Betty to use her influence whenever it was possible.  Betty it was who
+had first brought Edith into their club, and Edith had always cared for
+her and admired her more than any other of her associates.
+
+Betty stirred restlessly.  Would she never be able to get away from
+serious thoughts tonight?  But the next instant she had jumped to her
+feet with a quickly smothered cry and stood with her hands clasped
+tightly over her eyes.  For all around her, in her hair falling down
+upon her shoulders and about her face were glittering sparks of heat
+and light.  They were scorching her; already she could smell the odor
+of her burning hair.  One movement the girl made to protect her head,
+then in a flash her hands were covering her eyes again.  She wanted to
+run, and yet some subconscious idea restrained her.  Running would only
+make the flames leap faster and higher.  And surely in an instant some
+one must come to her assistance; for her own low cry had been echoed by
+a dozen other voices.
+
+Then Betty felt herself roughly seized and dragged stumbling away from
+her former position, while a sudden, smothering darkness destroyed her
+breath and vision; and none too tender hands seemed to be pressing down
+the top of her head.
+
+Another moment and she was pulling feebly at the scorched coat
+enveloping her.
+
+"Please take it off.  I am all right now.  The fire must be out, and
+I'm stifling," she pleaded.
+
+But about her there followed another firm closing in of the heavy
+material.  And then the darkness lifted, showing Anthony Graham
+standing close beside her in his shabby shirt sleeves, holding his
+ruined coat in his hands.  In a terrified group near by was every other
+human being in the room, excepting Jim Meade and Frank Wharton, who
+were pulling down the burning pine and cedar branches from the wall and
+stamping out the last sparks of fire caused by the overturning of one
+of the candles.
+
+"What happened to me?  Am I much burned?" Betty asked, trying to smile
+and yet feeling her lips quiver tremulously.  "Won't somebody please
+take me home?"  Now she dared not put up her hands toward her pretty
+hair, for it was enough to try and bear the pain that seemed to be
+covering her head and shoulders like a blanket of fire.
+
+Surely the faces before her must look whiter and more terror-stricken
+than her own.  Mollie and Faith were both crying.  Betty wondered just
+why.  And Anthony Graham was staring at her with such a strange
+expression.  She wanted to thank him, to say that she was sorry and
+grateful at the same time, but could not recall exactly what had
+happened.  Then that funny Herr Crippen was shaking all over and saying
+"Mein liebes Kind," just as though it were Esther who had been hurt.
+At last, however, Rose Dyer and Dr. Barton, each with an arm about her,
+were leading her across the length of that interminable and now
+pitch-black room with a floor that seemed to be rising before her eyes
+like the waves of the sea.  And afterwards, she did not know just when,
+the cold night air brought back to her a returning consciousness, but
+with the consciousness came an even greater sense of pain.
+
+Never in after years could Betty Ashton wholly forget the drive home
+that followed.  Rose Dyer and Miss McMurtry sat on either side of her,
+sometimes talking, sometimes quiet, and now and then gently touching
+her bandaged hands.  Occasionally Dr. Barton asked her a question, to
+which she replied as calmly and intelligently as possible.  Otherwise
+she made no movement that she could help and no sound.  Anthony Graham
+drove silently and grimly forward at the utmost speed that the two
+livery-stable horses could attain.  And although to Betty the journey
+seemed to last half a lifetime, in reality it had seldom been
+accomplished in so short a time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE INVALIDS
+
+Sylvia Wharton wearing a trained nurse's costume tiptoed into a
+darkened room.
+
+Instantly the figure upon the bed turned and sighed.
+
+"I don't see why she does not come to me, if she is no worse than you
+say she is," the voice said.  "Really, Sylvia, I think it would be
+better for you or some one to tell me the truth."
+
+Sylvia hesitated.  "She isn't so well, Betty dear.  Perhaps Dr. Barton
+may be angry with me, as he distinctly said that you were not to be
+worried.  But as you are worrying anyhow, possibly talking things over
+with me may make you feel better.  It has all been most unfortunate,
+Polly's being ill here in your house when you were enduring so much
+yourself.  But it all comes of mother's and everybody's yielding to
+whatever Polly O'Neill wishes."
+
+Sylvia sat down upon the side of the bed, taking one of Betty's hands
+in hers.  Ten days had passed since the accident at the cabin and the
+burns on Betty's hands had almost entirely healed, but over her eyes
+and the upper part of her face was a linen covering, so that it was
+still impossible to guess the extent of her injury.  She was apt to be
+quieter, however, Sylvia had found out, when she could feel some one
+touching her.  And now the news of Polly for the time being kept her
+interested.
+
+"You see, mother's first mistake was in not bringing Polly straight
+back home as soon as she found out what she was doing in New York.
+Polly had a slight cold then and it kept getting worse each night.  But
+of course Polly pretended that it amounted to nothing and that the
+stars would fall unless she finished her engagement.  So finish it she
+did, and then hearing of your accident toward the last, as mother and
+Esther had kept the news a secret from her for some time, why come here
+she would instead of immediately going home.  She wanted to help nurse
+and amuse you and you had said that you wanted her with you.  And then
+of course Polly was embarrassed over meeting father and Frank.  And
+father was angry at her disobedience and her frightening mother and
+Mollie.  However, that cold of hers has kept on getting worse and she
+will have to stay in bed now for a few days anyhow.  For I won't let
+Polly O'Neill have her own way this time."
+
+A faint smile showed itself on Betty's lips which Sylvia stooped low
+enough to see.  And then in spite of her own stolid and supposedly cold
+temperament, the younger girl's expression changed.  For it meant a
+good deal for any one to have succeeded in making Betty Ashton smile in
+these last few days.
+
+"But you're fonder of Polly than you are of the rest of us, even
+Mollie, Sylvia, and you let her lead you around," Betty argued.
+
+Sylvia's flaxen head was resolutely shaken.  She no longer wore her
+hair in two tight pigtails, but in almost as closely bound braids wound
+in a circle about her face.  Her complexion was still colorless and her
+eyes nondescript, but Sylvia's square chin and her resolute expression
+often made persons take a second look at her.  It was seldom that one
+saw so much character in so young a girl.
+
+"Yes, I am fond of Polly," she agreed, "but you are mistaken if you
+think I let her influence me.  Some one has to take Polly O'Neill
+sensibly for her own sake."  And Sylvia just in time stifled a sigh.
+For of course her stepsister was in a more serious condition than she
+had confessed to the other girl.  It was well enough to call the
+illness a bad cold--it was that, but possibly something worse,
+bronchitis, pneumonia--Dr. Barton had not yet given it a name.  She was
+only to be kept quiet and watched.  Later on he would know better what
+to say.  Her constitution was not strong.
+
+Some telepathic message, however, must have passed from one friend to
+the other, for at this instant Betty sat up suddenly with more energy
+than she had yet shown.
+
+"If anything dreadful happens to Polly, I shall never forgive Esther as
+long as I live.  It is all very well for Polly and your mother to
+insist that Esther was not in any possible way responsible.  Mollie and
+I both feel differently.  Esther should have told----"
+
+By the fashion in which Sylvia Wharton arose and walked away from the
+bed, Betty realized how intensely their opinions disagreed, although
+the younger girl moved quietly, with no anger or flurry and made no
+reply.
+
+"Here are some more roses, Betty, that John Everett sent you.  Shall I
+put them near enough your bed to have you enjoy their fragrance?"
+Sylvia asked.  "John seems to be buying up all the flowers near
+Dartmouth.  I told Meg that you would rather he did not send so many.
+But she says she can't stop him.  For somehow John feels kind of
+responsible for your getting hurt, as he arranged for you to sit under
+those particular candles.  Then he did not notice when you first called
+for help and let Anthony Graham rescue you.  Meg is downstairs now with
+your mother.  Would you like to see her?"
+
+Betty shook her head.  "Please don't let Meg know, but I don't feel
+like talking, somehow.  The girls are so sweet and sympathetic.  And I
+try to be brave, but until I know----"
+
+With magically quick footsteps the younger girl had again crossed the
+room and her firm arms were soon about her friend's shoulders.
+
+"You are going to be all right, dear.  Dr. Barton is almost sure of it
+and I am quite.  There won't be any scars that will last and your
+eyes--why, you protected them marvelously, and they only need resting.
+You are too beautiful, Betty dear, to have anything happen that could
+in any way mar you.  I can't, I won't believe it."
+
+And somehow Sylvia was one of those people in whose judgment and faith
+one must always find healing.  Betty said nothing more, only put out
+her hand with an appealing gesture and caught hold of Sylvia's dress.
+
+"I don't want to talk or to see people, and I'm tired of being read to.
+What is there for me to do, Sylvia child, to make the hours pass?"
+
+Rather desperately the younger girl looked about the great, sunshiny
+room.  It was not Betty's old blue room, but the room once used as a
+store-room and afterwards occupied by Esther, into which Betty had
+moved a short while before her accident.  Imagination was not Sylvia
+Wharton's strong point.  She was an excellent nurse, quiet, firm and
+patient and always to be relied upon.  But what to do to make Betty
+Ashton stop thinking of what might await her at the end of her weeks of
+suffering must have taxed a far more fertile brain than Sylvia's.
+However, the suggestion did not have to come from her; for at this
+instant there was a knock at the door, so gentle that it was difficult
+to be sure that it really was a knock.
+
+Outside stood the German professor with his violin under his arm.  And
+he looked so utterly wretched and uneasy that Sylvia wondered how he
+could feel so great an emotion over Betty, although the entire village
+seemed to be worrying as though in reality she had been their own
+"Princess."  No one could talk of anything else until her condition
+became finally known; but Herr Crippen was a newcomer and Betty had
+never cared for him.
+
+"Would the little _Fraeulein_ like it that I should play for her?" he
+now asked gently.
+
+And Sylvia turned to the girl on the bed.
+
+At first Betty had shaken her head, but now she evidently changed her
+mind.
+
+"You are very kind.  I think I should enjoy it," she answered.  And a
+few moments afterwards Sylvia stole away.
+
+So there was no one in the room to notice how frequently Herr Crippen
+had to wipe his glasses as he looked down upon the girl of whose face
+he could see nothing now save the delicately rounded chin and full red
+lips.
+
+[Illustration: The professor had to wipe his glasses]
+
+Then without worrying her he began to play: in the beginning not
+Beethoven nor Mozart, nor any of the classic music he most loved, but
+the Camp Fire songs, which he had lately arranged for the violin
+because of his interest in the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire girls, and which
+he was playing for the first time before an audience.
+
+And Betty listened silently, not voicing her surprise.  The song of
+"The Soul's Desire," what memories it brought back of Esther and their
+first meeting in this room!  No wonder that Esther had so great talent
+with such a queer, gifted father.  Betty wondered idly what the mother
+could have been like.  She was an American and beautiful, so much she
+remembered having been told.
+
+Then ceasing to think of Esther she began thinking of herself.  Could
+she ever again even try to follow the Law of the Camp Fire, which had
+meant so much to her in the past few years, if this dreadful tragedy
+which hovered over her, sleeping or waking, should be not just a
+terrible fear, but a living fact.  Should she be scarred from her
+accident, or worse fear, should her eyes be affected by the scorching
+heat of the flames?
+
+Softly under her breath, even while listening with all her soul to the
+music, Betty repeated the Camp Fire Law.
+
+"Seek Beauty?"  Could she find it, having lost her own?  Then she
+remembered that the beauty which the Camp Fire taught was not only a
+physical beauty, but the greater kind which is of the spirit as well as
+of the flesh.
+
+"Give Service?"  Well, perhaps some day in ways she could not now
+imagine, she might be able to return a small measure of the service
+that her friends had been so generously bestowing upon her.
+
+"Pursue Knowledge, Be Trustworthy."  No misfortune need separate a girl
+from these ideals.
+
+"Hold on to Health."  This might mean a harder fight than she had ever
+yet had to make before, but Betty felt a new courage faintly struggling
+within her.
+
+"Glorify Work."  That was not an impossible demand of her as a Torch
+Bearer among her group of Camp Fire girls.  It was the last of the
+seven points of their great law that she dreaded to face at this
+moment, here in the darkness alone.
+
+"Be Happy."  Could she ever again be happy even for a day or an hour?
+And yet the law said: "If we have pain, to hide it, if others have
+sorrow, be quick to relieve it."
+
+But what the rest of the law read she could not now recall.  For Herr
+Crippen was beginning to play one of the most exquisite pieces of music
+that can ever be rendered on the violin, Schubert's Serenade.
+
+  "Last night the nightingale woke me,
+  Last night when all was still
+  It sang in the golden moonlight"
+
+
+Betty wondered why the music should sound so strangely far away, as
+though she were dreaming and it were coming to her somewhere out of the
+land of dreams.
+
+Another moment and Betty was sound asleep.  Nevertheless the Professor,
+with his eyes still upon her, played softly on, played until Mrs.
+Ashton noiselessly entered the room.
+
+Then he ceased and the man and woman, standing one on either side of
+Betty's bed, looked at each other with expressions it would be
+difficult to translate.  For each face held a certain amount of
+pleading and of defiance.
+
+"She is like her mother; _nicht wahr_?" the Professor murmured, and
+then withdrew.
+
+Afterwards for several moments Mrs. Ashton's eyes never ceased
+regarding the curls of Betty's red brown hair, that lay outside on her
+pillow.  Her long braids had been cut off and latterly she had been
+wearing a little blue silk cap, which had now slipped off on account of
+her restlessness.
+
+Mrs. Ashton, glancing in a mirror at her own faded flaxen hair, sighed.
+Then, seating herself in a chair near by she waited in absolute
+patience and quietness, until suddenly from a movement upon the bed she
+guessed that Betty was waking.
+
+And actually her child's lips were smiling upon her not only bravely
+but cheerfully, as though her sleep had brought both comfort and faith.
+
+"Sit close by me, mother," Betty said, "and don't let any one else come
+in for a long time.  You know I have been trying to get you to tell me
+the history of this old room for ages and now this is such a splendid
+comfy chance.  I am just exactly in the mood for hearing a long,
+thrilling story."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+"WHICH COMES LIKE A BENEDICTION"
+
+"Tell me exactly what you think, Dr. Barton, please, and don't try to
+deceive me," Betty Ashton pleaded.  "I want to be told the truth at
+once before mother or any one else joins us.  Always I shall be
+grateful to Rose for suggesting that you come here to me alone and when
+no one was expecting you, so that there need be no unnecessary
+suspense."
+
+Betty Ashton was seated in a low rocking chair one morning a few days
+later, with Dr. Barton standing near and carefully unwrapping the
+bandages from about her head.  The room was not brightly lighted,
+neither was it dark, for a single blind had been drawn up at the window
+on the opposite side of the room.
+
+Dr. Barton's face showed lines of anxiety and sympathy.  Indeed, Rose
+Dyer could hardly have been persuaded to believe how nervous and shaken
+he appeared and how, instead of his usual look of hardness and
+austerity, he was now as tender and gentle as a woman.
+
+"But my dear Betty," he returned in a more cheerful voice than his
+expression indicated, "what I say to you about yourself is by no means
+the last word.  My opinion, you must remember, is of blessedly little
+importance.  If there are any scars left by my treatment of your burns,
+there are hundreds of wonderful big doctors who can perform miracles
+for you.  And then time is the eternal healer."
+
+"Yes, I know," the girl answered, "but just the same, please hurry and
+let me know what you yourself honestly think.  At least, I shall be
+able to tell myself whether my eyes are injured, as soon as you let me
+try them in a bright light."
+
+For a fraction of a moment Dr. Barton delayed his work.  "Won't you
+allow me to call your mother, or Miss Dyer or Miss McMurtry?  Miss Dyer
+is in the house.  I happen to have seen her.  And it may be better, in
+case you do not feel yourself, to have some one else here to care for
+you.  There is Sylvia.  Actually I believe she has been of as much use
+to you and Polly O'Neill as your professional nurses."
+
+At this instant, although she had set her lips so close together that
+only a pale line showed, Betty's chin quivered, and although her hands
+gripped the sides of her chair so hard that her arms ached, her
+shoulders shook.
+
+If only Dr. Barton would cease his perfectly futile efforts to distract
+her attention.  Could any human being think of another subject or
+person at a time like this?
+
+And Dr. Barton did recognize the clumsiness of his own efforts, only
+his conversation was partly intended to conceal his own anxiety.
+
+"Don't I hear some one coming along the hall?  Are you sure you locked
+the door?" Betty queried uneasily.
+
+Dr. Barton did not reply.  At this instant, although the linen covering
+still concealed his patient's eyes, he had removed the upper bandages,
+so that now her forehead was plainly revealed to his view.
+
+And Betty Ashton's forehead had always been singularly beautiful in the
+past, low and broad with the hair growing in a soft fringe about it and
+coming down into a peak in the center.  Now, however, across her
+forehead there showed a long crimson line, almost like the mark from
+the blow of a whip.  Dr. Barton examined it closely, touched it gently
+with the tips of his fingers and then cleared his throat and attempted
+to speak.  But apparently the needed words would not come.  On either
+side the ugly scar the girl's skin was white and fine as delicate silk
+and on top of her head, which had been protected by her heavy hair, the
+burns had almost completely healed.
+
+"It is all right, Miss Betty," Dr. Barton said in a curiously husky
+voice.  "You are better than I even dared hope.  There is a scar now,
+but I can promise you that it will be only a faint line in the future,
+or else will disappear altogether.  The very fact that the trouble has
+concentrated into the one scar shows that the healing has taken place
+all about it."
+
+Betty's own hands slipped the final covering from about her eyes.  Then
+for a moment her heart seemed absolutely to have stopped beating.  For
+the room swam around her in a kind of disordered dimness.  She could
+see nothing clearly.  In a panic she sprang to her feet, when Dr.
+Barton took a firm hold on her shaking shoulders.
+
+"Be quiet, child.  Pull yourself together for just a minute.  You are
+frightened now, you know.  In another moment things will clear up and
+grow more distinct."
+
+And even before he had finished speaking Betty realized this to be the
+blessed truth.
+
+There in the far end of the big room stood her bed and, on a table
+near, a bunch of John's pink roses.  She could even see their bright
+color vividly.  In another direction was her dressing table and about
+it hung the photographs of Rose, of Miss McMurtry, of the eleven Camp
+Fire girls.
+
+Dropping back into her chair Betty, covering her face with her hands,
+began to sob.  And she cried on without any effort at self-control
+until she was limp and exhausted, although all the while her heart was
+saying its own special hymn of thanksgiving.  And young Dr. Barton kept
+patting her upon the shoulder and urging her not to cry, because now
+there was nothing to cry about, until Betty would like to have laughed
+if the tears had not been bringing her a greater relief.  How like a
+man not to understand that she could now permit herself the indulgence
+of tears, when for the past two weeks she had not dared, fearing that
+once having given way there would be no end.
+
+"Would you mind leaving me for a few minutes and trying to find
+mother?" Betty at last managed to ask.
+
+She wanted to be alone.  But a few seconds after the doctor's
+disappearance, Betty got up and with trembling knees managed to cross
+her room, feeling dreadfully weak and exhausted from the long suspense.
+For she wished to look into a mirror with no one watching.  And as
+Betty Ashton got the first glimpse of herself, although vanity had
+never been one of her weaknesses, she honestly believed that she never
+had seen any one look so tragically ugly before in her entire life.
+She hardly recognized herself.  Her face was white and thin, almost
+bloodless except for the scar upon her forehead.  Then her hair had
+been cut off, and though in some places the curls still remained heavy
+and thick, in others she looked like a badly shorn lamb.
+
+And this time the tears crowding Betty's eyes were not of relief but of
+wounded vanity.
+
+"I never saw any one so hideous in my life," she remarked aloud.  "And
+I am truly sorry for the people who must have the misfortune of looking
+at me."
+
+Betty was wearing an Empire blue dressing gown and slippers and
+stockings of the same color.  Her eyes were dark gray and misty with
+shadows under them.  She looked ill, of course, and unlike her usual
+self, and yet it would be difficult for any misfortune to have made
+Betty Ashton actually ugly.  For beauty is one of the most difficult
+things in the world to define and one of the easiest to see--a
+possession that is at once tangible and intangible.  And Betty
+possessed the gift in a remarkable degree.
+
+Therefore she did not look unattractive to the eyes of the young man
+who was now staring at her in astonishment, fear and delight, from her
+own open doorway, which Dr. Barton, on leaving the room, had neglected
+to close.
+
+"I am sorry.  Oh, I am so glad!"
+
+Anthony Graham murmured.  "I was passing your room; I didn't mean to
+intrude.  But nothing matters now you are well again and looking like
+yourself.  It's so wonderful, so splendid, so----"  And the young man,
+who was ordinarily quiet and reserved, fairly stammered with the rush
+of his own words.
+
+Betty walked shyly toward him with her eyes still filled with tears.
+
+"Oh, I am dreadful to look at, but I must not complain," she answered
+wistfully.  "A Camp Fire girl ought to have learned some lessons in
+bravery and endurance.  Please let's don't talk about me.  I want to
+thank you, for if it had not been for you, I might have--I can't bear
+to think even now what might have happened to me."
+
+"Then don't," the young man returned brusquely, but Betty did not this
+time misunderstand his manner.  "I did not do anything.  I ought to
+have gotten to you sooner.  I have been hating myself ever since for
+the time I took to reach you.  After all you had done for me in the
+past!"
+
+The next moment the girl put her hand into the boy's hard,
+work-roughened one.  "Ask Nan to tell the others for me.  And remember
+that no matter what has happened or may happen in the future, I shall
+always feel myself in your debt, not you in mine."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+SECRETS
+
+It was sundown.  The big Ashton house, although so filled with people,
+was oddly quiet.  Betty Ashton slipped out of her own room into the
+hall and hurried along the empty corridor.  Once only she stopped and
+smiled, partly from amusement and partly from satisfaction.  Herr
+Crippen's door was half open and so was Miss McMurtry's and the
+Professor was playing on his violin.  Such sentimental love ditties!
+The air throbbed with German love songs.
+
+And Betty had a mischievous desire to stick her head into Miss
+McMurtry's room and see if she was engaged in some maiden-like
+occupation, such as marking school papers or reading the _Woodford
+Gazette_.  Or was she sitting, as she should be, with her hands idly
+folded in her lap and her heart and mind absorbed in the music?  Never
+had Betty given up her idea that a romance was in the making between
+their first Camp Fire guardian and Esther's father.  And often since
+their coming to live in her house had she not seen slight but
+convincing evidences?  Why should Donna so often appear with a single
+white rose pinned to her dress or take to playing the same tunes on the
+piano that the Professor played on his violin, particularly when she
+was an exceedingly poor pianist?
+
+Nevertheless it was not awe of her teacher and guardian that kept Betty
+from investigating the state of her emotions at this moment; neither
+was it any fear of antagonism between them, for since Esther's
+departure to study in New York, Miss McMurtry apparently felt more
+affection for Betty than for any of the other Camp Fire girls.  No, it
+was simply because she had a very definite purpose which she wished to
+accomplish without interruption or opposition.
+
+The next instant and she had paused outside a closed door and stood
+listening tensely.  There were no noises inside, no voices, nor the
+stir of any person moving about.  Betty put her hand on the knob and
+opened it silently.
+
+Instantly there was a little cry and Betty and Polly O'Neill were in
+each other's arms.
+
+"Betty, you darling," Polly gasped, "turn on every light in this room
+and let me stare and stare at you.  There isn't anything in the world
+the matter with you.  You are as lovely as you ever were.  Oh, I have
+been so frightened!  I have not believed what anybody told me, and it
+seemed it must be a part of my punishment that you had been injured.
+It is absurd of me, I suppose, but I have had a kind of feeling that
+perhaps if I had been at Meg's party I should have been with you at the
+time so that it couldn't have happened."
+
+"Foolish Polly!  But when was Polly anything but foolish?" the other
+girl returned, taking off her cap and pushing back her hair.  "You see
+I am a sight, dear, but it does not matter a great deal.  I am kind of
+getting used to myself these last few days.  So I didn't see any reason
+why, since you are better and I am perfectly well, we could not be
+together.  Even if it does give you a kind of a shock to look at me,
+you'll get over it, won't you?"
+
+In reply Polly had one of her rather rare outbursts of affection.  She
+was never so demonstrative as the other girls.  Her devotions had ways
+of expressing themselves in an occasional compliment tendered perhaps
+in some whimsical, back-handed fashion, or in a fleeting caress, which
+came and was gone like the touch of a butterfly's wing.
+
+Now, however, she took her friend's face between her two hands and
+kissed her quietly, almost solemnly upon the line of her injury.
+
+"Never say a thing like that to me again as long as you live, Betty
+Ashton.  Perhaps I haven't as much affection as other people.  Mother
+and Mollie are both insisting it lately.  Still I know that----but how
+silly we are to talk of it!  You are not changed.  Of course I am sorry
+that your hair had to be cut off, but it will grow out again and the
+scar will disappear.  I wish I could get rid of my"--Polly
+hesitated--"blemishes so easily," she finished.
+
+Betty looked puzzled.  "What do you mean?  Sylvia says you are very
+much better and that there is no reason why you should not get up.  She
+declares that it is only that you won't and that she does not intend
+nursing you or letting any one else take care of you after a few days,
+unless you do what Dr. Barton tells you.  Sylvia is a dreadfully firm
+person.  She was quite angry with me when I said that I did not believe
+you were well and that I was quite strong enough now to take care of
+you and you should not get out of bed until you had entirely recovered."
+
+"But I have entirely recovered and I am well and somehow I can't manage
+to deceive Sylvia Wharton no matter how hard I try," Polly announced in
+a half-amused and half-annoyed manner.
+
+"Then why are you trying to?" Betty naturally queried.  Of course one
+never actually expected to understand Polly O'Neill's whims, but now
+and then one of them appeared a trifle more mysterious than the others.
+"If you are still tired and feel you prefer to remain in bed, that is a
+sure sign you are not strong enough to get up, and Dr. Barton and
+Sylvia ought to realize it," she continued, still on the defensive.
+
+But Polly only smiled at her.  "But, dear, I don't prefer to remain in
+bed.  I am so deadly bored with it that as soon as I am left alone I
+get up and dance in the middle of the floor just to have a little
+relief.  Can't you and mother and Mollie understand (I don't believe
+any one does except Sylvia) that I don't want to get up because I don't
+want to have to face the music?"
+
+Still the other girl looked puzzled.
+
+"Can't you see that as long as I have been able to be sick nobody has
+dared to say very much to me about my escapade in New York?  Oh, of
+course I know what they think and mother did manage to say a good deal
+before we came home; still, there is a great deal more retribution
+awaiting me.  In the first place, I shall have to go home to the
+Wharton house.  I realize it has been dreadful, my being sick here, but
+I am everlastingly grateful to you and your mother.  Mr. Wharton won't
+say anything much; he really is very kind to me; but naturally I know
+what he thinks.  And then when Frank Wharton is there it will be so
+much worse.  You see, Frank and I quarreled once, because I thought he
+was rude to mother.  And of course he considers my disobedience worse
+than his rudeness.  And as he is perfectly right, I can't imagine how I
+shall answer him back the next time we argue."
+
+As Polly talked she had risen into a sitting posture in bed and was now
+leaning her chin on her hand in a characteristic attitude and quite
+unconscious of the amusing side to her argument until Betty laughed.
+
+Polly had on a scarlet flannel dressing sacque and her hair was tied
+with scarlet ribbons.  And indeed her cheeks were almost equally vivid
+in color.
+
+"But there isn't anything funny about my punishment, Betty dear.  And
+the worst of it is that I know I deserve all of it and more and shan't
+ever have the right to complain.  Mother declares that she does not
+expect to allow me to leave Woodford again until I am twenty-one, since
+she has no more faith in me.  And then, and then--" Polly's entire face
+now changed expression--"has any one told you that my behavior is to be
+openly discussed at the next meeting of our Camp Fire Club?  Perhaps I
+won't be allowed to be a member any longer."
+
+Instantly Betty jumped up from her kneeling position by the bed and
+commenced walking up and down the length of the room, saying nothing at
+first, but with her lips set in obstinate lines.
+
+"But it isn't the custom of Camp Fire clubs to act as both judge and
+jury, is it, Polly?" she inquired.  "At least, I have never heard of
+any other club's undertaking such a task.  We are allowed, I know, to
+be fairly free in what we do in our individual clubs, but somehow this
+action seems unkind and dangerous.  For if once we begin criticising
+one another's faults or mistakes, after a while there won't be any
+club.  Right now Edith Norton is behaving very foolishly, I think, but
+I wouldn't dream of even discussing her with you or any one of the
+girls.  I----"  Betty paused to get her breath, her indignation and
+opposition to Polly's information overwhelming her.
+
+But Polly held out both hands, entreating her to sit beside her again.
+
+"You are mistaken.  I did not explain the circumstances to you as I
+should have.  It is all my idea and my plan to have the girls consider
+my misconduct and find out how they feel about me," Polly explained
+quietly.  "I spoke of it first to Rose and then to Miss McMurtry and at
+first they thought in a measure as you do.  But I don't agree with you.
+You remember that our honor beads come to us for obedience and service
+to our Camp Fire laws.  Why should not disobedience make us unworthy to
+wear them?  In the old days if an Indian offended against the laws of
+his tribe he was made to suffer the penalty.  And I don't want you
+girls to keep me in our club just because you are sorry for me and are
+too kind to be just.  Mollie has told me how horrified Meg and Eleanor
+and Nan are, and of course Rose and Donna have not pretended to hide
+their disapproval, even during their consolation visits to me as an
+invalid.  But you will forgive me, won't you, Betty?"  Polly ended with
+more penitence than she had yet shown to any one save her mother.
+
+"Of course I forgive you.  But if you had not gotten well I should
+never have forgiven Esther," the other girl answered.
+
+Two fingers were laid quickly across Betty Ashton's lips.
+
+"Don't be unfair and absurd," Polly protested; "for some day you may be
+sorry if you don't understand just how big and generous Esther Crippen
+is.  It isn't only that she would sacrifice her own desires for other
+people's, but that she actually has.  I would not be surprised if
+Esther did not have some secret or other."  And Polly stopped suddenly,
+biting her tongue.  Not for worlds would she even in the slightest
+fashion betray a suspicion or inference of her own concerning the
+friend who had been so loyal and devoted to her.
+
+Fortunately Betty was too intent upon her own thoughts to have heard
+her.
+
+"I have to go back to my own room now, but you are not to worry, Polly
+mine, not about anything.  In the first place, you are not to go home
+very soon.  I have talked to your mother and mine and persuaded them
+that I need to have you stay on here with me.  I do need you, Polly.
+It is queer, but I want you to come and sleep in the old back room with
+me.  I have gotten nervous being in there by myself.  There is a
+mystery about the room greater than I have dreamed.  I have only been
+joking half the time when I have spoken of it.  But the other day I got
+mother to the point where there was no possible excuse for her not
+explaining the entire reason for her attitude and Dick's toward the
+place, when suddenly she broke down and left me.  We might amuse
+ourselves while we are invalids discovering whether or not it is
+haunted.  Only I don't exactly wish to make the discovery alone."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE LAW OF THE FIRE
+
+Mollie O'Neill walked slowly toward the Ashton house one afternoon not
+long afterwards at about four o'clock, looking unusually serious and
+uncomfortable.  She was wearing a long coat buttoned up to her chin and
+coming down to the bottom of her dress, and was carrying a big book.
+
+"Mollie, there isn't anything the matter?  Neither Betty nor Polly is
+worse again?" Billy Webster inquired, unexpectedly striding across from
+the opposite side of the street and not stopping to offer his greeting
+before beginning his questioning.
+
+Mollie shook her head, although her face still retained so solemn an
+expression that the young man was plainly alarmed.  Ordinarily Mollie's
+blue eyes were as untroubled as blue lakes and her forehead and mouth
+as free from the lines of care or even annoyance.
+
+Billy Webster put the book under his arm and continued walking along
+beside her.
+
+"If there is anything that troubles you, Mollie, and you believe that I
+can help you, please don't ever fail to call on me," he suggested in
+the gentle tones that he seemed ever to reserve for this girl alone.
+"I know that Polly is dreadfully angry over my interference in New
+York, but so long as you and your mother thought I did right and were
+grateful to me, I don't care how Polly feels--at least, I don't care a
+great deal.  And I believe I should behave in exactly the same way if I
+had it all to do over again."
+
+Shyly and yet with an admiration that she did not attempt to conceal
+Mollie glanced up at her companion.  Billy was always so determined, so
+sure of his own ideas of right and wrong, that once having made a
+decision or taken a step, he never appeared to regret it afterwards.
+And this attitude under the present circumstances was a consolation to
+Mollie.  For oftentimes since Polly's return and while enduring her
+reproaches, she had experienced twinges of conscience for having
+concerned an outsider in their family affairs, though somehow Billy did
+not seem like an outsider.  Polly had insisted that she had been most
+unwise in asking him to look up Esther and herself immediately upon his
+arrival in New York.  How much better had she waited and let Polly make
+her confession to their mother later, thus saving all of them
+excitement and strain!  However, since Billy was still convinced that
+he would do the same thing over again in a similar position, Mollie
+felt her own uncertainty vanish.
+
+"No, there isn't anything you can help about this afternoon," she
+replied.  "I am only going to a monthly meeting of our Council Fire.
+The girls told me that if I liked I need not come, yet it seems almost
+cowardly to stay away.  For you see Polly has insisted that we talk
+over her conduct and decide whether or not we wish her to remain a
+member of our club.  Or at least whether some of her honor beads should
+be taken from her and her rank reduced.  There is a good deal of
+difference of opinion.  For some of the girls are convinced that once
+our honor beads are lawfully won, nothing and no one has the right to
+take them from us; while others feel that breaking the law of the Camp
+Fire should render one unworthy of a high position in the Council and
+that even though one is not asked to resign, at least one should be
+relegated to the ranks again.  But of course all this is a secret and
+must never be spoken of except in our club."
+
+"Like an officer stripped of his epaulettes," Billy murmured.  And
+afterwards: "See here, Mollie, if this is a club secret then you ought
+not to have told me and I ought not to have listened.  For it is pretty
+rough on Polly.  But I promise not to mention it and will try to
+forget.  We must not make her any more down upon me than she is
+already."
+
+The young man and girl had now come to the Ashton front gate, and as
+they stopped, Billy gave the book to Mollie and could not forbear
+patting her encouragingly upon the coat sleeve.  She looked so gentle
+and worried.  Polly always seemed to be getting her into hot water
+without really intending that Mollie should be made to suffer.
+
+"It will turn out all right, I am sure," he insisted in a convincing
+tone.  "Your sister will always have too many friends to let things go
+much against her in this world."
+
+Mollie found that the other girls had already assembled in the Ashton
+drawing room and, as she was late, the camp fire had been laid and
+lighted, following the same ceremony as if it had taken place outdoors.
+
+The members were all present excepting Polly, who had declined coming
+down to make her own defense, and Esther, who was still at work in New
+York.  The two Field girls, Juliet and Beatrice, completed the original
+number, as they were both in Woodford for the winter attending the High
+School.  Rose Dyer, with Faith's hand tight in hers, appeared uneasy
+and distressed.  In her role of Camp Fire Guardian she was not assured
+of the wisdom of their proceedings and could find no precedent for it
+among other Camp Fire clubs.  However, Miss McMurtry had consented to
+join their meeting and, as she had been the original and was now the
+head Guardian of all the clubs in Woodford, the responsibility might
+honestly be shared with her.
+
+For the first time since her accident Betty Ashton was able to attend a
+gathering of the Council Fire; and although she was the center of the
+greater part of the attention and affection in the room, Betty appeared
+as nervous and worried as Mollie O'Neill.
+
+To both of the girls this open discussion of one of their club member's
+misdeeds was abhorrent.  And that the accused should be their adored
+but often misguided Polly made the situation the more tragic and
+distasteful.
+
+Although she was not yet in a position to be positive, Betty felt
+reasonably convinced that Edith Norton was at the bottom of this formal
+judgment of Polly.  So skilfully and quietly had the older girl gone to
+work that both Rose Dyer and Miss McMurtry were under the impression
+that the original suggestion had come from the culprit herself.
+
+Yet the truth was that Edith Norton had a smaller nature than any other
+member of the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire Club and she and Polly had never
+been real friends since the night long ago of the Indian "Maiden's
+Feast," when Edith thinking to fix the guilt of a theft upon Nan
+Graham, had wakened Polly to a sudden sense of her own responsibility.
+And it was following a visit of condolence to Polly's sick room by
+Edith that swift as a flash Polly had announced herself as willing and
+ready to have her conduct considered by the club council.  For it
+afterwards appeared that Edith had casually mentioned that the other
+girls had been talking among themselves of this question of Polly's
+fitness or unfitness to continue a "Torch Bearer" in the club.  So with
+her usual recklessness and impulsiveness she had insisted that her
+offense be openly considered and that she receive whatever punishment
+might be considered just.  Never had she planned denying her misdeed
+nor taking refuge behind her friends' affection.
+
+Therefore both Betty and Mollie had been entreated, even ordered, to
+listen quietly to whatever might be said of her behavior and without
+protest.  And Mollie had agreed.  Betty had reserved the right to use
+her own discretion and had no intention of not making herself felt when
+the moment arrived.
+
+After the regular business of the meeting had been concluded a marked
+silence followed, the girls hardly daring even to glance toward one
+another.
+
+Rose Dyer coughed nervously, yet as she had been chosen to set Polly's
+case plainly before the other girls and to ask for their frank opinions
+of what action, if any, the Sunrise Hill Club desired to take, her
+responsibility must not be evaded.  Of course all of the girls had
+previously heard the entire story, but perhaps in a more or less highly
+colored fashion.  And particularly Polly O'Neill insisted that Esther
+Crippen's part in her action be explained.  For Esther must not be held
+in any way accountable, as both Betty and Mollie had been inclined to
+feel.
+
+When Rose had finished a simple statement of the facts of the case and
+had asked to hear from the other club members, no one answered.  Betty
+kept her eyes severely fastened upon Edith Norton's face.  Surely Edith
+must be aware of her knowledge of certain facts that were as much to
+her discredit as Polly's disobedience.  Of course nothing could induce
+her to make capital of this knowledge, since Betty Ashton's
+interpretation of Camp Fire loyalty was of a different kind from Edith
+Norton's, as the older girl was one day to find out.  Nevertheless
+there was nothing to prevent Betty from using her influence with the
+hope that Edith might be discouraged from making any suggestion that
+would start the tide of feeling rolling against the culprit.
+
+This Council Meeting might be a greater test of the entire Camp Fire
+organization than any one of the girls realized.  Possibly it had been
+a mistake to allow the fitness or unfitness of a fellow member to be
+openly discussed; especially when the girl was Polly O'Neill, for Polly
+was a powerful influence always and the club might easily split upon a
+criticism of her.  Whatever should happen, however, Betty Ashton
+intended using every effort to keep the Sunrise Hill Camp together,
+saving Polly also if she could.
+
+In spite of her friend's restraining glance, Edith apparently failed to
+regard her, for instead she glanced insinuatingly toward Eleanor Meade
+and Meg Everett.  Both these girls had expressed themselves as deeply
+shocked and grieved over Polly's behavior, though neither of them
+appeared to be ready to make any statement of their views on this
+occasion.  It was one thing to express an informal opinion of another
+girl's action, but quite another to make a formal accusation against
+her in the club where they had lived and worked and grown together in
+bonds almost closer than family ones.
+
+Next Edith studied Sylvia Wharton's expression.  Day and night had
+Sylvia nursed Polly with infinite patience, and yet she had made no
+effort to conceal her disapproval of her stepsister's conduct and
+Sylvia might always be relied upon for an honest and straightforward
+statement of her opinion.  Yet Sylvia's face at the present moment was
+as empty as though she had never had an idea in her life.
+
+Just why this continuing silence should make the original Sunrise Hill
+Camp Fire guardian smile, no one understood.  However, the Lady of the
+Hill knew very well why and was feeling strangely relieved.  For had
+she not permitted a dangerous test of the Camp Fire spirit to be tried
+and were the girls not responding just as she had hoped and believed
+they would?  Surely during these past two years they had been
+developing a real understanding of comradeship, the ability to stick
+together, to keep step.  And girls and women had for so many centuries
+been accused of the inability to do this.
+
+"I think that no one of us holds Esther Crippen in any way responsible
+for Polly O'Neill's action or for continuing to keep her family in
+ignorance of what she was doing," Edith finally began in a rather weak
+voice, seeing that no one else showed any sign of speaking.  "It is one
+of the things that I think she is most to be blamed for, since it is
+hardly fair to bring another club member into a difficulty on account
+of her feeling of personal loyalty."
+
+Betty frowned.  There was so much of truth in Edith's speech that it
+could hardly fail to carry a certain amount of conviction.
+
+But before any one could reply, Sylvia Wharton got up from the floor,
+where she had been sitting in Camp Fire fashion, and crossing the room,
+stood before the flames, facing the circle of girls with her hands
+clasped in front of her and her lips shut tight together.  Her usually
+sallow skin was a good deal flushed.
+
+"I am going to make a motion to this club," she announced, "but before
+I do I want to say something, and everybody knows how hard it is for me
+to talk.  I can do things sometimes, but I can't say them.  Just now
+Edith Norton used the word, 'loyalty.'  I am glad she did, because it
+is just what I want to speak of--because it seems to me that loyalty is
+the very foundation stone of all our Camp Fires.  Of course Polly has
+broken a part of our law.  She has failed to be trustworthy, but I am
+not going into that, since each one of you can have your own opinion of
+her behavior and would have it anyway no matter what I said.  But the
+whole point is, won't every single girl in the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire
+Club possibly break some of the rules some day?  As we are only human,
+I think we are pretty sure to.  So I move that we say nothing more
+about Polly.  Perhaps others of us have done things nearly as bad or
+will do them.  But more important and what I would so much like to
+persuade you to feel about as I feel is this:"--and Sylvia's plain face
+worked with the strength of an emotion which few people had ever seen
+her display before--"I want us to promise ourselves and one another
+that no matter what any fellow member of the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire
+Club ever does, or what mistake she may make, or even what sin she may
+commit, that no one of us will ever turn her back upon her or fail to
+do anything and everything in our power to help her and to make things
+happy and comfortable again.  I wish I could talk like Betty and Polly,
+but you do understand what I mean," Sylvia concluded with tears
+compounded of embarrassment and earnestness standing in her light blue
+eyes.
+
+"Hear, hear!" whispered Miss McMurtry a little uncertainly.
+
+Rose Dyer clapped her hands softly together.  The sound gave the
+necessary suggestion to the other girls, and poor Sylvia crept back to
+her place in the circle in a storm of applause.  It was the simplest
+method by which the girls could reveal their deeper emotions.  A few
+moments afterward Sylvia's proposal was put into the form of a regular
+motion and carried without a dissenting voice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+A FIGURE IN THE NIGHT
+
+"Polly," a muffled voice murmured in so low a tone that the sound was
+scarcely audible.  Then a cold hand was slid beneath the bed clothes,
+clasping a warm, relaxed one and pressing it with sudden intensity.
+
+"Betty, did you call me?" Polly O'Neill inquired, turning over sleepily
+and trying to pierce the darkness so as to get a view of her companion.
+Now that she was coming to her senses, she could feel Betty's body
+straining close up against her own and her lips almost touching her ear.
+
+It was between two and three o'clock in the morning and the two friends
+had been sleeping together in Betty Ashton's old-fashioned four-post
+bed, hung with blue curtains that opened only for a space of several
+feet in the center of the two sides.  The room was dark and cold, for
+there was no light burning and the sky outside held the blackness that
+often precedes the dawn.  A window was open, letting in sudden gusts of
+freezing air.
+
+"You aren't ill, are you?" Polly was about to ask when the other girl's
+fingers closed over her mouth.
+
+"Don't speak and don't stir," Betty whispered, still in almost
+noiseless tones.  "Just listen for a moment.  Try and not be
+frightened, but do you think you can hear any one moving about in this
+room?"
+
+For the first instant Polly felt a decided inclination to laugh.  What
+an absurd suggestion Betty was making!  She must have been asleep and
+dreamed something that had frightened her.  It was rather to be
+expected, however, after the shock of her accident at the cabin.
+Therefore it would be best to gratify her fancy; and Polly set herself
+to listening dutifully.
+
+Then Polly herself started, only to feel once more the other girl's
+restraining clasp.  But the sound she had heard was only the banging of
+the blind against the window.  Nevertheless with the quick Irish
+sensitiveness to impressions, to subtle suggestions, she was beginning
+to have a terrifying consciousness of some other person in their
+bedroom than herself and Betty.  And yet she had so far heard nothing,
+seen nothing.
+
+"Look through the opening in the curtain toward the farthest end of the
+room--there by the big closet door," Betty whispered.  "Be perfectly
+still, for I am quite sure that the figure has passed entirely around
+the room twice as though it were groping for something.  I can't see, I
+can only hear it, and once I felt sure that a hand touched our bed."
+
+Shadowy, terrifyingly silent, an indistinct outline was discernible
+along the opposite wall and a hand moving slowly up and down it as if
+searching for something.  Could it be for the door of the closet only a
+few feet away?
+
+Both girls for the moment were too frightened or too surprised to stir
+or to call out.  The idea of jumping suddenly from the bed and running
+toward the intruder had occurred to Betty, who was the more widely
+awake, although she had confessed to herself that she was neither brave
+nor foolish enough to do it.  For the figure was too mysterious, too
+uncertain, and whether man or woman, boy or girl, she had no
+conception.  Why, it was only the fact of the hand which proved that it
+was even human!
+
+Then both girls lay rigid once more, with not a muscle moving, scarcely
+believing that they breathed.  For the form was again flitting down the
+length of the room, possibly toward their bed.  The next second and it
+had passed through Betty's evidently unlatched door and vanished
+noiselessly into the hall.
+
+Polly was sleeping on the outside of the bed, so it was she who first
+leaped upon the floor, turning on the electric light until the room was
+brilliantly illuminated.
+
+"You are not to stir until I can go along with you," Betty protested,
+following her immediately.  And then both girls lost a moment of time
+in putting on their dressing gowns, for the night was bitterly cold.
+
+"Shall we call somebody first?" Polly inquired, all at once in the
+lighted room feeling uncertain as to whether the experience through
+which they had lately passed had been a real one.  Nothing in their
+room was changed in the least since their going to bed.  There were
+Betty's clothes on one chair and her own upon another.  There was the
+book she had been reading left open upon the desk, and Betty's
+unfinished letter to Esther.  Had they both gone suddenly mad?
+
+But Betty had lighted a candle; so Polly followed until they were able
+to light the gas in the second story hall.
+
+There was no one about.  All the other bedroom doors were safely closed
+and the Professor was apparently snoring hoarsely.
+
+"Shall we call your mother or wake up anybody?" Polly questioned.  But
+Betty shook her head.  She looked pale, and her eyes were uncomfortably
+mystified.  Otherwise she appeared perfectly self-controlled.
+
+"No, let us not call anybody and not mention our alarm until morning.
+If our visitor was a burglar, he knows that we are aware of his
+presence and so won't try any more performances tonight.  And if it
+wasn't a burglar, but a ghost, why, there is no use frightening mother
+to death and we will only get laughed at by the others.  It seems queer
+to me for either a ghost or a burglar to come into a house so filled
+with people.  If you don't mind, Polly, let us just go on back to bed
+and leave the light burning for our consolation.  We had both better
+try to sleep."
+
+Sleep, however, after their few moments of terror and in the face of
+the enigma of their unexplained visitor, was impossible.  Also the
+light in the bedroom did not induce slumber, although both girls found
+it agreeable.  Their door leading out into the corridor was now
+securely latched, notwithstanding that Betty was not in the habit of
+locking it.
+
+"Betty," Polly asked after a few moments of silence, when the two
+friends were back again in bed with their arms clasped close about each
+other, "the closet there at the end of your room--is it one where
+either you or your mother keep your clothes?"
+
+"No," the other girl repeated thoughtfully.  "I had not thought of
+that.  But it only makes things queerer than ever.  For the closet is a
+particularly large one and has always been stored with rubbish.  It has
+an old trunk in it and some pictures and boxes.  I don't think there is
+anything of value, though I don't know exactly what is in the trunk, or
+the boxes either for that matter.  I have often meant to clear the
+place out, but I have never needed the space and mother pokes around in
+it sometimes.  It is ridiculous to suppose that a burglar would take an
+interest in old trash, when there are so many other valuable things
+about.  Besides, suppose there should happen to be a few treasures in
+one of the boxes or the trunk, nobody could know about it when I don't.
+Oh dear, I wish it were morning!"
+
+Betty sighed deeply, tumbling about restlessly in a fashion that made
+her a very undesirable bed companion.  And yet Polly, who was
+ordinarily nervous from the slightest movement, made no protest.  And
+she said nothing more for some time, although it was self-evident that
+she was not growing sleepy.  Her rather oddly shaped blue eyes had a
+far-away, almost uncanny light in them, that somehow added to Betty's
+discomfort.
+
+"Look here, Polly O'Neill," she protested, giving her arm an
+affectionate squeeze, "please don't be wishing a ghost upon us.  I know
+you have always believed in Irish fairies and elves and hobgoblins and
+the like, and used to fuss with poor Mollie and me outrageously because
+we couldn't or wouldn't see them.  But tonight--Oh, well, even Irish
+ghosts don't come strolling into one's bedroom.  They at least have the
+courtesy to stay in churchyards and in haunted ruins."
+
+"Yes, but isn't this the haunted room of this house, Betty?" Polly
+inquired in a faintly teasing voice, which yet held a note of serious
+questioning in it.
+
+And immediately Betty's face grew white and frightened, far more so
+than at any moment before during their adventure, so that the other
+girl was instantly regretful of her speech.
+
+"Polly O'Neill," two firm hands next took hold on Polly's thin
+shoulders, turning her deliberately over in bed so that she was forced
+to face her questioner, "ever since I can remember there has been some
+mystery or other connected with this old room.  Of course it is not
+haunted.  I suppose sensible people don't believe in ghosts, though I
+don't see why not believing makes them fail to exist.  But the room may
+have had a tragedy of some kind take place in it, something that both
+mother and Dick find it painful to mention or recall.  I told you that
+mother would not explain her feeling to me when I insisted upon
+knowing.  However, I don't think my family has the right to keep a
+secret from me.  I am nearly grown now and no longer the kind of girl I
+used to be.  So see here, Polly.  Look me directly in the eyes.
+Oftentimes outsiders hear things first.  Have you ever heard of a
+sorrow or accident, or even something worse, that may have occurred in
+this house or even in this room when I was too little a girl to
+understand or remember it?  You must tell me the truth."
+
+Polly shook her head, devoutly thankful at the moment for her own lack
+of information.  With Betty's beautiful, honest gray eyes searching her
+own, with her lips trembling and her cheeks flushed with the fervor of
+her desire, her friend would have found deceiving her extremely
+difficult.  Yet it was more agreeable to change the subject of their
+talk, even though it continued upon dangerous grounds.
+
+"No, Betty, I was not thinking of ghosts nor of the fact that you have
+always been absurdly curious about the mystery of this room.  I was
+thinking of something altogether different--of a thief, in fact--and I
+was wondering whether you would be angry or hurt or both if I mention
+something to you?" Polly returned.
+
+Betty kissed her friend's thin cheek, wishing at the same instant that
+it would grow more rounded, now that Polly was presumably well.  "You
+don't usually mind making me angry, dear," she smiled.  "And I don't
+see why if you have a possible theory of a burglar that I should be
+hurt.  Do you think the figure we saw was a man's or a woman's?"
+
+"I don't know," the other girl replied.  "What I have been wondering is
+just this: Has any one in this house ever come into this room with your
+mother when she was rummaging in that old closet, to help her move the
+furniture or lift things about?"
+
+For a moment Betty frowned and then her face flamed crimson.
+
+"You are not fair, Polly.  You never have approved of his living here
+or my being kind to him.  And you have said half a dozen times that
+there was no special point in my being particularly grateful to him,
+since any one of our friends would have done just what he did, had they
+been equally near me.  But then of course that does not alter the fact.
+Now just because _he_ has been in here to assist mother does not prove
+anything, does not even make it fair to be suspicious."
+
+Polly shrugged her shoulders.  "I knew you would be angry, so I am
+sorry I spoke.  But you see our first meeting in the woods with the
+young man when your safety box was almost stolen from you was a little
+unfortunate.  But I don't say that I suspect any one, either, and I
+have no intention of not being fair.  However, I do intend to keep on
+the lookout.  Now kiss me good morning, for I am going to turn out the
+light.  The gray dawn seems at last to be breaking and perhaps we may
+both get a little sleep before breakfast time."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+UNCERTAINTY
+
+In spite of their own entire conviction the story told the next day by
+Polly and Betty to the various members of the Ashton household was
+received with little credulity.  Even Mrs. Ashton was inclined to be
+skeptical after finding that nothing in the big house had been stolen
+or even disarranged.  There was no window that had been pried open and
+no door left unlocked.  Then why, even if the robber had entered the
+house by some mysterious process of his own, had he gone away again
+empty-handed?  There were many pieces of valuable silver in the lower
+part of the establishment, pictures, even single ornaments that could
+be sold for fair sums of money.  Therefore why climb to the second
+story and enter the girls' room first?
+
+Although Betty and Polly were too deeply offended by the suggestion to
+allow it to be freely discussed, Miss McMurtry's idea that they had had
+a kind of sympathetic nightmare, or at least a mutual hallucination,
+was the most commonly accepted theory.  It was an extremely annoying
+point of view to both the girls, of course, but as they had nothing to
+disprove it, they were obliged after several futile arguments to let
+the matter rest.  Naturally their Camp Fire friends were delightfully
+thrilled by the anecdote, but as it was always received either with
+open or carefully concealed disbelief, after a few days neither Polly
+nor Betty cared to speak of it except to each other.
+
+There was one person, however, who, whether or not he believed the
+truth of their story, at least accepted it with extreme seriousness.
+And it was to him that Polly O'Neill made a determined effort to be the
+first narrator of their experience.
+
+Anthony Graham was in the habit of getting up earlier than any one else
+in the Ashton house and had of course disappeared hours before either
+of the girls awakened the morning after their nearly sleepless night.
+However, he was accustomed to returning to his small room in the third
+story at about half-past five o'clock every afternoon, when his work
+for the day was over, in order to change his clothes for the evening.
+So at about this time Polly found it convenient to be in the hallway
+leading to his room and to be there alone.
+
+As he walked toward her unconscious of her presence, in spite of her
+prejudice against him she could not fail to see how much the young man
+had improved.  He was hardly recognizable as the boy with whom they had
+had the encounter in the woods a little more than a year before.  He
+was shabby enough and as lean as a young animal that has had too much
+exercise and too little food.  His face was serious, almost sad;
+nevertheless Polly had no intention of not pursuing her investigation.
+
+She had seated herself on a narrow window ledge and was presumably
+peering out at the trees in the garden.
+
+As he caught sight of her the young man started with a perfectly
+natural surprise.  For although Polly had been in the same house with
+him now for a number of weeks, they had not seen each other more than
+half a dozen times and had only talked together once when Betty had
+made a point of introducing them as though they had never met before.
+
+Perhaps some recollection of their original coming together was in
+Anthony's memory, for he blushed a kind of dull brick red, when Polly,
+turning deliberately from her window seat, said: "Mr. Graham, I wonder
+if you would mind giving me a minute of your time.  There is something
+I wish to tell you."
+
+"Certainly," he answered and then stood fingering his hat in the same
+awkward fashion that he had employed in his Thanksgiving visit to
+Betty, yet regarding the girl herself with a totally different
+sensation.
+
+For instinctively Anthony Graham recognized that Polly O'Neill was or
+might become his enemy.  Not that she would do him any wrong, but that
+if ever he was able to set out to accomplish the desire of his heart,
+the weight of her influence and feeling would be against him.  And he
+did not underestimate the compelling power of a nature like Polly's.
+She was wayward, high tempered, sometimes appearing unreliable and
+almost unloving.  Yet this last fact was never true of her.  It was
+only that her personality was of the kind that can want but one thing
+at a time with all the passion and force of which it is capable.  And
+pursuing this desire, she might seem to forget her other impulses.
+Polly, however, never did put aside her few really vital affections.
+She and Betty Ashton might quarrel, might continue to disagree as they
+had so often done in the past; yet Betty's welfare and happiness would
+always be of intense concern to her friend.  More because of the
+quality of her imagination than from any single witnessed fact, Polly
+had lately suspected that Anthony might learn to care more for her
+friend than would be comfortable for anybody concerned in the affair.
+And undoubtedly the young man had once been a thief if intention
+counted.  Therefore he might be a thief again, and in any case probably
+needed to be forewarned of a number of things.
+
+"There was a burglar in our room last night," Polly began, wasting no
+time in preliminaries, but keeping her blue eyes fixed so directly upon
+Anthony's that they were like blue flames.
+
+Even before he could reply the young man wondered how there could be
+people who thought this girl beautiful or even pretty.  It was true
+that at times her eyes were strangely magnetic, that her hair was
+always black with that peculiar almost dead luster, and her lips like
+two fine scarlet lines.  Yet she was always too thin, her chin too
+pointed and her cheekbones too high to touch any of his ideals of
+beauty.
+
+"I--I am sorry.  That is--what _do you mean_?" the young fellow
+stammered stupidly.  And all at once the scowl gathered upon his face
+that Betty Ashton had once misunderstood.  It was a black, ugly look,
+and in this case certainly was inspired by the impression that because
+of his former misdeed, Polly might now be suspecting him of another.
+
+And she left him no room for doubt.
+
+"Oh, I am not exactly accusing you," she remarked coolly, "for I
+presume that would hardly be fair.  But I am not going to pretend that
+I feel as much confidence in you as I do in the people against whom I
+know nothing.  I can't.  Perhaps I may some day when you have made
+good, but it is a little too soon to expect it of me, as I am not an
+idealist like some girls.  So last night, though we did not have any
+reason to suspect that the person who entered our room and then stole
+out again without our ever really seeing him or her had anything to do
+with you, I must confess I did think of you.  Because, though it is
+just as well not to talk about it, there is no question but that the
+intruder was already living in this house.  No one came in from the
+outside.  So you see it is like this: I don't begin to say that it was
+you, but I am going to be on the watch and it is just as fair to warn
+you openly as to suspect you in secret.  Then there is another thing.
+Personally I don't believe we had a ghostly visitant, as Betty is
+inclined to think because of the mystery of that particular room.  So
+suppose we take it for granted that you had nothing to do with our
+experience, then will you help Betty and me to find out who or what it
+was?  We do not want to create too much disturbance over it."
+
+Just how many varying emotions had passed through Anthony Graham's mind
+during Polly's amazing speech, it would be difficult to express.  He
+was bitterly angry of course, deeply wounded and resentful, and yet he
+could not but have a certain respect for the girl's outspokenness, for
+her kind of brutal courage.  Certainly he was given notice not to
+repeat his offense, if offense he had committed.  And as proof of his
+own innocence it might be as wise for him to discover the real offender.
+
+Anthony kept a hold on himself by a fine effort of self-control.  The
+truth was that he and Polly O'Neill were not altogether unlike in
+disposition, and he had a temper and a will to match with hers.
+Notwithstanding, he appreciated that this was not the occasion for
+revealing weakness.
+
+Therefore he merely bowed with such quiet courtesy that Polly was
+secretly astonished.
+
+"You are unfair in suspecting me of having violated Mrs. Ashton's
+confidence simply because I once tried to commit a theft.  Though of
+course I know that most people would feel just as you do.  Does
+Betty--does Miss Ashton----" he inquired.
+
+Polly frowned.  "No," she responded curtly.
+
+"Then will you tell her, please, that you have confided what has
+happened to me and that I will do my best to ferret out the mystery."
+
+And Anthony walked past and into his own room, closing the door
+noiselessly behind him.
+
+With a shrug of her thin shoulders Polly stood for another moment
+regarding the shut door.  "I am sorry to say it, but he has behaved a
+great deal better than I expected," she thought to herself with a smile
+at her own expense.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+AN UNSPOKEN POSSIBILITY
+
+The two friends were walking home from school together about ten days
+later.  They had both stayed until almost dusk engaged in different
+pursuits.
+
+Betty was doing some extra studying with Miss McMurtry, as she had
+missed so much time and science was always her weakest point; while
+Polly had been having an hour's quiet talk with her former elocution
+teacher, Miss Adams.  Probably she was the one person in Woodford,
+excepting Betty, who sympathized in the least with Polly in her
+escapade.  Or if she did not exactly sympathize with her, she was sorry
+for the retribution that she had brought upon herself.  For Mrs.
+Wharton had decreed that her daughter was not to leave Woodford again
+and was not even to be permitted to study anything in the village with
+the view of its being useful to her later in a stage career.  The
+subject was to be entirely tabooed until Polly reached twenty-one, when
+if she were of the same mind, she might choose her own future.  Of
+course to an impatient nature three years and a few months over seemed
+like an eternity, and except for Betty's sympathy and her frequent
+talks with Miss Adams and the latter's accounts of her great cousin,
+Margaret Adams, Polly believed existence would have been unendurable.
+
+She was in such a state of excitement now over something which Miss
+Adams had been recently telling her, that at first she hardly heard
+what Betty was trying to say.
+
+"I have her permission to tell you, Polly dear, because she wishes to
+have your advice, as you have more imagination about getting out of
+difficulties than the rest of us; but you have to promise first never
+to mention it to anybody, not to a single other member of the Camp Fire
+Club or to Rose or even Donna."
+
+Polly laughed, putting her arm lightly across Betty Ashton's shoulder.
+
+"What are you talking about, child?" she demanded.  "I don't
+particularly like that suggestion of my talent for getting out of
+scrapes; but if the scrape has anything to do with Betty Ashton, then
+all my talent is at her disposal, of course."
+
+"But it has nothing to do with me, at least not in the way you mean,"
+the other girl replied, too much in earnest to be amused even for the
+moment.  "It has to do with a girl whom you have never liked very much
+and she has never liked you.  But she has been my friend and I do care
+for her.  And moreover she is a member of our Sunrise Hill Camp Fire
+Club and we promised to live up to Sylvia's motion."
+
+"Edith Norton?" Polly queried.  "She must be in trouble if she is
+willing to confide in me."
+
+But Betty's expression suddenly silenced her.  Always Betty Ashton had
+been the most popular among her special group of Camp Fire girls.  At
+first chiefly for her beauty, her wealth, the prominent position of her
+family and for her own generosity and charm.  More recently, however,
+since the girl had met her own disasters so courageously, a new element
+had come into her influence and the affection she inspired.  It was a
+quality that Polly with all her cleverness would never create, one of
+steadfastness under fire.  Perhaps it was one of the last
+characteristics that one might have looked for in the early days of the
+Princess.  And yet it will always be found in truly aristocratic
+natures.  When life is flowing smoothly, when the days go by with no
+special demands made upon them, these persons may have many little
+weaknesses.  Yet when the special occasion arises theirs is the
+faithfulness and fortitude.  So while Betty had neither the sound
+judgment of Sylvia Wharton nor the brilliant fancy of Polly, it was to
+her that the other girls usually made their first appeal in any dilemma
+or distress.
+
+At this moment if they had not been together on the street Polly would
+have liked to embrace her.  The cold air had brought Betty's color
+back; she still wore the little lace cap under her old fur hat, but the
+edging made a lovely frame for her face, and her hair was already
+growing so that the curls showed underneath, like a baby's.
+
+"Yes, it is Edith," Betty answered seriously.  "And she is in a
+difficulty that you could never have imagined of one of our Camp Fire
+girls.  You know she has been going a good deal with that man whom none
+of us like until she thinks she is really in love with him.  And it
+seems that Edith believes that he does not care a great deal about her.
+So she, poor thing, has been trying her best to make him care.  She has
+bought herself a lot of clothes that she cannot afford, for you know
+she gets such a small salary at the shop where she works."
+
+"Is that all?" Polly demanded.  "It is awfully foolish of her, of
+course, to be so extravagant, but it isn't such a dreadful crime.  And
+as I suppose she has charged what she got, she can just save up and pay
+back her bills by degrees."
+
+Betty shook her head.  "Don't be a goose, dear.  Edith can't charge
+things in Woodford.  She hasn't any credit in the shops like your
+mother and mine have.  She is only a poor girl working for her own
+support, with her family not living here and with no position when they
+were.  No, you see she borrowed the money from the woman she was
+working for without telling her.  She meant to pay it back of course,
+only, only----"
+
+"You mean she stole it from her?" Polly exclaimed in a hushed tone.
+This was a good deal worse than anything which she had anticipated.
+She had always considered Edith Norton foolish and vain; but then
+surely the Camp Fire had helped her, had given her the ideals and the
+training that she had never learned at home.  Betty was crying so
+bitterly and so openly that Polly felt she must comfort her friend
+first before criticising or attempting to suggest a solution to the
+other girl's problem.
+
+"But, dear, if you wish Edith's trouble kept a secret, you must not
+weep over her, just as you get home," she protested.  "Don't you know
+that everybody in the house will be demanding to know what the matter
+is at once, and the Professor can hardly be kept from weeping with you?
+I can't think of anything to suggest to Edith except that she confess
+what she has done and ask Madame to let her return the money by working
+for it."
+
+"I told her that, but she did not believe that she would be forgiven,"
+Betty explained.  "Oh, if I only had just a little of the money I used
+to throw away!  I don't mind being poor so much myself, Polly; it is
+when I so want to do for other people."
+
+"You don't have to tell me that, Princess," her friend replied quietly.
+"But, dear, this time I am glad you have not the money.  Because you
+know it would not be right for you just to give Edith the money and
+have her give it back without any one's knowing.  At least, I don't
+quite think so.  And yet I am awfully sorry that Edith and I should
+both in our different ways have broken our Camp Fire law.  And I will
+do anything I can think of to help her.  Do you know, dear, how long
+she has been in this difficulty?
+
+"Oh, I think about two weeks," Betty answered.  "But she only confided
+in me yesterday.  It seems that she has tried several ways of getting
+the money and has attempted to borrow it.  She thought maybe I could
+lend it to her, and I may be able to later on, only I would have to
+tell mother some reason why I needed twenty-five dollars all of a
+sudden from our small supply."
+
+"No, you must not.  Maybe I may be able to help.  Or we may persuade
+Edith to confess.  I believe she will when she thinks more about our
+old Camp Fire teachings.  Anyhow, as we are at home now, let us wait
+and talk it all over again tonight after we get to bed.  It is then, of
+course, that I do my most brilliant thinking."
+
+So with this in mind, obliterating all other thoughts at their hour of
+retiring, for the first evening since their fright ten days before,
+neither Polly nor Betty remembered the locking of their outside door
+upon getting into bed.
+
+And this time it was Polly O'Neill who was aroused first a short while
+after midnight by the slow turning of their doorknob and then the sense
+of an almost noiseless figure entering their bedroom.
+
+Immediately she awoke Betty by suddenly calling her name aloud, and at
+the same instant sprang out of bed, again touching the electric button
+and flooding the room with revealing light.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE BEGINNING OF LIGHT
+
+"Why, why!" exclaimed Polly in surprise  and  consternation, standing
+perfectly still with her hand upraised toward the light, too puzzled to
+let it drop down at her side.
+
+But with a little, warning cry Betty had called to her and almost at
+the same moment was across the room, with her arms about a tall, slight
+figure.
+
+"Mother, mother," she whispered quietly, "wake up.  You have gotten up
+out of your bed and wandered into Polly's and my room.  And you have
+frightened us nearly to death!  Dear me, you have not walked in your
+sleep for years, have you?"
+
+At Betty's first words following the stream of light, Mrs. Ashton had
+opened her eyes with returning consciousness until now she appeared
+almost entirely wide awake.  And an expression both of fear and
+annoyance crossed her face.
+
+"You poor children, so I am your ghost and your burglar," she declared,
+"and I believed it was you who were having nightmares!  I am awfully
+sorry.  Betty knows I used to have this unfortunate habit of strolling
+about the house in my sleep long ago.  But I am quite sure that I have
+not done it for several years now.  The truth is I have not yet gotten
+over the nervous shock of Betty's being brought home to me and my not
+knowing how seriously she was injured for such a time; it seemed an
+eternity."
+
+Betty had thrown a shawl over her mother's shoulders, as she was clad
+only in her night-dress, and she and Polly slipped into their dressing
+gowns.
+
+"Wasn't it odd, though, mother, your coming in here both times?  I
+wonder if you had me on your mind and wanted to see how I was.  But you
+did not seem to.  You kept groping your way toward that old closet as
+though you wished to rummage about in it.  But do come and let me take
+you back to bed now, and I will stay with you so you will behave
+yourself and give Polly a chance to rest."
+
+For quite five minutes after the two had gone, Polly lay awake.  There
+were really so many things to consider, because, of course, when one
+has too active an imagination it is apt to lead one into trouble.
+First, she must apologize to Anthony Graham for her totally unfounded
+suspicion of him.  And then, thank Heaven, she had not breathed the
+suggestion aloud!  Yet just for a moment she had wondered if Edith
+Norton could have--but it was not true and of course never could have
+been.
+
+Then a third idea.  What could be hidden away in that old closet of so
+great value or interest that Mrs. Ashton turned toward it in her
+sleeping hours, when her subconscious mind must be directing her
+footsteps?   No wonder that Betty was puzzled and annoyed over the
+secrets of the old room.  Naturally as a visitor in the Ashton home it
+would be exceedingly bad manners, if nothing worse, for her to try to
+find out anything that her hostess wished to keep concealed.  Yet just
+as Polly lost her train of thought she remembered wishing that Betty
+might make the discovery for herself, since most certainly then she
+would confide in her.
+
+The next day being Friday, Polly went to her own home to spend the
+week-end.  And quite by accident she and Mollie came in together for a
+few moments on Sunday afternoon and went directly to Betty's room
+without letting her know of their approach.
+
+As they knocked and had no answer, Polly, feeling entirely at home,
+pushed the door open.
+
+"Betty, child, don't you want to see us?" she demanded.  "I know I
+promised to give you a rest until Monday, but Mollie and I could not
+bear to spend a whole Sunday afternoon without you."
+
+And at this, Betty Ashton appeared from the darkness of the big closet
+at the farthest end of her bedroom.  She wore a lavender cashmere frock
+with a broad velvet belt and a lace cap with lavender ribbons.  But the
+cap was much awry, so that her hair was tumbled carelessly over her
+forehead, even showing the slight scar underneath, which usually she
+was so careful to hide, and her cheeks were a good deal flushed.  There
+was no doubt that she was greatly interested or excited over something.
+
+"Mollie and Polly, I am glad," she avowed.  "I was just needing some
+one to talk to and to ask questions of most dreadfully.  Mother has
+gone out driving this afternoon, and as I was alone it occurred to me
+it might be fun to rummage about in this old closet and see whether it
+really concealed any treasures.  After our belief that a burglar was
+trying to enter it, I thought it might be just as well for me to find
+out what it contained."
+
+"Does your mother know?" Polly inquired, and could hardly have
+explained to herself just why she asked the question.
+
+"No.  I did not think of investigating it before she left.  But of
+course she won't care.  Why should she?  The boxes have nothing in them
+but old books and rubbish.  But this trunk--I can't quite understand
+about some of the things I have found in it.  Maybe you can help me
+guess."
+
+And before either of the other girls knew what she intended doing,
+Betty was dragging the shaky trunk out of the closet into the greater
+brightness of the room, Mollie rushing to her assistance as soon as
+possible.  Yet for some reason unknown to herself, Polly hesitated.
+She did not even move forward when Betty and Mollie dropped down on
+their knees before it, although she did observe that the trunk was
+locked, but that the hinges at the back had rusted and fallen off, so
+that Betty had gotten into it in that way.
+
+Evidently the things at the top had already been taken out inside the
+closet, for Betty was now reaching down toward the bottom and bringing
+out what looked like a trousseau of baby clothes--her own or Dick's,
+they could not yet tell which.
+
+The little dresses were yellow and fragile with age; the long blue coat
+had faded; most of the little shoes and flannels had been worn.
+
+"I wish you would not look through those things until your mother gets
+back, Betty," Polly said rather irritably.
+
+But both her sister and friend glanced up at her in surprise.
+
+"What is the possible harm?  Mother couldn't mind.  There is certainly
+no reason why I should not look at my own clothes or at Dick's.  It's
+queer I never happen to have seen them before."
+
+"Did your mother never have any other children, Betty?" Mollie
+inquired, and the other girl shook her head.
+
+Polly had come over now and was standing near them by the edge of the
+trunk and looking down inside it.
+
+Of course what Betty was doing must seem to her perfectly right or else
+she would never have thought of doing it; yet Polly could not help
+feeling a certain distaste for the whole proceeding.  Old possessions
+were always kind of uncanny and uncomfortable to her temperament; they
+held too poignant a suggestion of death, of the passing of time and of
+almost forgotten memories.
+
+Betty and Mollie had a differently romantic point of view.  And to both
+of them, being essentially feminine, the delicate, exquisite baby
+apparel made a strongly sentimental appeal.
+
+Suddenly, with a little cry of surprise and amusement, Betty picked up
+a small frock which must have been made for a child of about a year
+old, that was curiously different from the others.  While they had been
+of sheer lawns and expensive laces, this was a perfectly
+straight-up-and-down garment of coarse check gingham of the cheapest
+kind and attached to it were a pair of rough little shoes.
+
+"I wonder how in the world these ever got in here or why mother has
+preserved them so carefully.  She has a perfect horror of cheap
+things," Betty began in a half-puzzled and half-humorous fashion,
+holding the poor little baby dress up to the light and giving it a
+shake.
+
+Stooping, Mollie picked up something that must have fallen from one of
+the shoes.  It was an old tintype picture of a comparatively young man
+with a baby in his arms and a little girl pressing close up against his
+knee.
+
+Mollie was looking at it with a slightly bewildered expression when
+Polly came up and glanced over her shoulder.  And instantly Polly's
+face grew white; however, it was a trick of hers when anything
+surprised or annoyed her.  And at the moment she had a strong impulse
+to take the picture from Mollie's hands and tear it into a hundred
+pieces before Betty Ashton should have a chance to see it.
+
+Notwithstanding, Betty had already joined them and was apparently as
+much perplexed as Mollie.  She took the photograph nearer to the window.
+
+"I declare this looks like Esther when she was a little girl and
+Professor Crippen.  I believe he did tell me there was another child
+that somebody had adopted and who did not know he was her father.  I
+suppose Esther must have asked mother to take care of these things for
+her.  It is queer that she never thought of speaking of them to me.  I
+must write her I have seen them, for I should not wish her to feel I
+had been prying," Betty finished, going back to the trunk and putting
+the little things carefully away.
+
+The weight that had gathered pressingly in the neighborhood of Polly's
+heart in the past thirty seconds now lifted.
+
+"Yes, and do close up that tiresome trunk at once Betty Ashton, or I am
+going home," Polly scolded.  "It bores me dreadfully to have you and
+Mollie poking in there when we might be talking."
+
+But Betty paid no heed to her, for she had found another photograph of
+a different character.  It was a picture of another baby, a beautiful
+miniature so delicately tinted that the colors were almost like life.
+And the child's face was very like Mrs. Ashton's, the same flaxen hair
+and light blue eyes.  And it bore no possible resemblance either to
+Richard Ashton or to Betty.  However, there was no reason to consider
+its being either one of them, for it was plainly marked on the back,
+"Phyllis Ashton," and then had the date of the birth.
+
+Betty offered no comment and expressed no wonder, although she let both
+her friends look at the picture, still holding it in her own hands.
+
+"But I thought you said your mother had only two children, you and
+Dick," Mollie declared, and Polly would have liked to shake her.
+
+"Yes, I did think so until now," the third girl replied.  And placing
+her picture back in the trunk, she closed the lid, still leaving the
+trunk in the center of the room, in spite of the fact that both her
+friends insisted on helping her with it into the closet.
+
+Then Betty began making tea on her alcohol lamp and talking of other
+things; only Polly could see that her mind was not in the least upon
+what she was saying, but that she was thinking of something else every
+possible second.
+
+Whether to go or to stay with her friend was Polly's present
+indecision.  However, she and Molly remained until Mrs. Ashton had
+returned from her drive and Betty went into her mother's room to assist
+in taking off her wraps.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+BETTY FINDS OUT
+
+It was Monday afternoon and the March weather held an alluring
+suggestion of spring.
+
+Running along the street with her red coat scarcely fastened and her
+hat at a totally wrong angle upon her head, Polly O'Neill showed no
+concern for exterior conditions.
+
+Finding the Ashton front door unlocked she entered without stopping to
+ring the bell, and made straight, not for Betty's, but for Mrs.
+Ashton's bedroom.  She found her lying upon the bed, though at her
+visitor's entrance she sat up, appearing quite ill.
+
+"O Mrs. Ashton, why didn't Betty come to school today?  Where is she?
+Has anything happened?  I was dreadfully worried when I found she was
+not at any of her classes, and then when I asked Miss McMurtry whether
+anything was the matter, she was so queer and mysterious.  And when I
+said I was going to leave school and come here at once, she said that I
+had better not, that Betty had specially asked to be alone and that
+even you had not seen her this morning.  Donna behaved just as though
+she knew something about my beloved Betty that I don't.  And it is not
+fair.  I am sure Betty would wish me to know.  Where is she?"
+
+"Sit down, Polly," Mrs. Ashton returned, getting up from the bed and
+taking a seat opposite.  "I don't know where Betty is just now and I am
+very uneasy and very unhappy about her.  The poor child has had so many
+things happen in the past year, after being spoiled in every possible
+way up till then.  She was in her own room most of the morning, but
+about two hours ago sent word to me that she was going out and that I
+was not to be alarmed if she did not return for some little time.  I
+might as well tell you our secret, dear.  I suppose there is no way now
+to keep people from knowing it eventually and perhaps we have been
+unkind and unwise in concealing it from Betty so long.  I wonder if you
+have ever dreamed that Betty is Esther Crippen's sister?"
+
+Polly gasped.  No, she had not dreamed it.  If the suspicion had ever
+entered her mind, she had put it from her as a self-evident absurdity.
+Her beautiful, exquisite Princess and Esther and Herr Crippen!  It was
+an impossible association of ideas and of people.
+
+"But it can't be true, Mrs. Ashton," she argued almost angrily, feeling
+that the room was whirling about and that she was almost ill from the
+surprise and shock.  And if this was her sensation, what could Betty's
+have been!  "Think how lovely Betty is and how utterly unlike either of
+them.  Besides, why have we never known and how did you happen to do
+it?"  Polly dropped her face in her two hands.  She so very seldom
+cried that the effort always hurt her.
+
+"It is a tragic story, dear, and one we have never liked to talk about
+for all our sakes," Mrs. Ashton replied, showing more self-control than
+Polly had ever seen her display before.
+
+"Very many years ago I had a baby named Phyllis.  Betty tells me that
+you too saw her picture in the old trunk.  Well, Dick was a little boy
+of about seven, and by some dreadful accident found a loaded pistol in
+his father's desk and came running into the big back room with it,
+which in those days was the baby's nursery.  You can imagine what
+happened without my telling you.  Dick was a child, and yet the horror
+of it has altered his entire nature and life.  He has always been
+serious and over-conscientious, always anxious to devote his life to
+the service of other people as a reparation for a tragedy which was
+never in the least his fault.  It was therefore as much for Dick's sake
+as for mine that Mr. Ashton persuaded us to adopt a baby in Phyllis'
+place.  So we drove out to the asylum together one day, with our minds
+not made up and there--there we found our adored Betty.  Herr Crippen
+had just left his two children to be cared for, and Betty was only a
+baby.  But she was the most exquisite little thing you can imagine, the
+same lovely auburn hair and big serious gray eyes.  Dick adored her
+from the moment that she put her arms about his neck and would not let
+go when the time came for us to return home.  We have always loved her
+since, Polly, as well as if she had been our own baby--better I almost
+think.  You know what she is, so there is little use for me to say
+it--'Our Princess', dear.  I have always loved your name and the other
+girls' for her."
+
+"But Herr Crippen and Esther--they are so plain, and except for their
+gifts, why, compared to Betty they seem so--so ordinary," Polly
+protested.
+
+"But you must remember that there was a mother, too, and that Herr
+Crippen has said she was an American and very lovely.  I believe her
+family would have nothing more to do with her because she married a
+German musician.  And then, you see, child, Betty has had many
+advantages that Esther has not had.  It was because Dick and I began
+slowly to realize that perhaps we had been cruel to Esther in depriving
+her of her little sister that we finally asked her to come here and
+live as a kind of companion to Betty.  It was a long-delayed kindness
+and yet Esther has very nobly repaid us; for it seems that when Herr
+Crippen returned and claimed Esther as his daughter, Esther learned
+then of Betty's relation to them and it was she who insisted that her
+father make no sign, realizing how entirely Betty's devotion was given
+to Dick and Mr. Ashton and to me, even to this old home, which has been
+her pride for so long."
+
+"Poor, poor little Princess!  It will almost break her heart," Polly
+murmured.
+
+But although Mrs. Ashton wiped a few tears from her eyes, she shook her
+head.
+
+"Some day you will find out that hearts are harder to break than you
+now believe.  I would almost have given my life to have spared Betty
+this knowledge, and yet some day she must realize that we love her as
+we have always done and that love is the only thing that greatly
+counts, after all.  There is no reason why Betty should feel any shame
+in her relation to Herr Crippen; he has been unfortunate, but there is
+nothing else against him.  And Esther is a remarkable girl."
+
+"Yes, I know.  But what made Betty suspect?  How did she find all this
+out?" Polly queried.
+
+"Betty told me of her discoveries in the old trunk and asked me a
+number of questions.  I was confused; I am not in the least sure how I
+answered them.  Anyhow, she became suspicious and went to Herr Crippen
+and then to Miss McMurtry, who, it seems, was in Esther's and her
+father's confidence.  They gave the child no satisfaction, but only
+made her the more uneasy and distressed, until finally Betty remembered
+the sealed envelope which Mr. Ashton had always made her keep in her
+box of valuable papers.  Possibly she has told you that the envelope
+was only to be opened when she should come to some crisis in her life
+and need advice or information.  Betty opened the envelope and it
+contained the papers proving her legal adoption by us and her right in
+the equal division of whatever property either Mr. Ashton or I might
+have.  Now, Polly, that is all," Mrs. Ashton concluded.  "But I feel
+that if Betty does not soon come to me and put her arms about me and
+call me 'mother' as she always has, that I shan't be able to bear
+things either.  Won't you find her and bring her here to me?"
+
+And Polly, glad to be away to battle with her own emotions, kissed her
+older friend and vanished.  But Betty was not in her room, and as there
+seemed to be no clue to work upon, it was difficult to decide just
+where she should begin the search.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+SUNRISE CABIN
+
+Betty was not with any one of their acquaintances, for Polly telephoned
+everybody they knew before leaving the Ashton house.
+
+Then a possibility suddenly dawning upon her, she hurried forth,
+feeling that anything was better than remaining longer indoors.
+
+All of the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire girls were in the habit of taking
+frequent walks to their forsaken log cabin.  And as Betty wished to be
+alone and especially needed the strength and consolation that its happy
+memories could give her, probably she had gone out there.  Under most
+circumstances Polly would have respected her friend's desire for
+solitude, but Betty must already have been at the cabin for some time
+by herself and the dusk would soon come down upon her and she would be
+hurt and lonely, with all her familiar world fallen about her feet.
+
+No one else must learn of her pilgrimage, since Betty might forgive her
+presence and yet could not rally to meet the astonishment and sympathy
+of any other of her friends.  So Polly told several impatient fibs to
+the persons who insisted upon learning where she intended going, before
+she was able to get outside of Woodford and into the blessed solitude
+of the country lanes.
+
+The air was colder by this time and light flurries of snow kept
+blinding her eyes as she hurried along.  However, she had not so
+forgotten her training in woodcraft as not to recognize signs of
+Betty's having preceded her along almost the same route; for here and
+there, where the earth had thawed in the midday warmth, there were
+impressions of the Princess' shoes.  And she even picked up a small
+crushed handkerchief which had been dropped by the way.
+
+Therefore in spite of her depression over Mrs. Ashton's information,
+Polly was beginning to get a kind of hold upon herself.  For it was her
+place, if she possibly could manage it, to persuade Betty that, after
+all, life was not so utterly changed by yesterday's discovery.  If Mrs.
+Ashton and Dick were not her own mother and brother, they themselves
+knew no difference.  And there would be no change in her friends'
+affections.  Then, she had gained Esther as a sister, Esther who was so
+big in her nature, so unselfish and fine.  No wonder she had always
+seemed to care for Betty with a devotion no one of them could explain.
+And how hard it must have been loving her as she did to have made no
+claim upon her.
+
+"Hello, Miss Polly," an unexpected voice cried out, and to Polly's
+utter vexation she beheld Billy Webster coming toward her from the path
+that led through his father's woods.
+
+She bowed coldly, hoping that her coldness might be her salvation,
+since she did not wish to waste time in conversation with him, nor to
+explain why she was in such a hurry to go on with her walk.  But Billy
+was apparently not influenced by Polly's present attitude, being too
+accustomed to her moods.
+
+"May I walk along with you?" he inquired politely enough.  "I was just
+out for exercise, with no special place in mind where I wished to go,
+and I should ever so much rather have you as a companion."
+
+It was on the tip of Polly's tongue to exclaim, "But I would so much
+rather not have you!"  However, she suddenly recalled having promised
+Mollie to be as polite to Billy as she could and not to bear malice any
+longer.  So she merely shook her head.  "I am sorry, but I am in a
+great hurry," she explained.  "For you see I came out with a very
+special place in mind to which I wish to go immediately."
+
+Billy laughed, rather a big, splendid, open-hearted laugh.  Polly was
+amusing, in no matter what temper she might happen to be.
+
+"But I won't interfere with your destination and I certainly can manage
+to walk as fast as you can," he announced calmly, keeping close to the
+girl's side, although her rapid walking had developed almost into a
+run, and she was nearly out of breath.
+
+[Illustration: "I won't interfere with your destination"]
+
+Well, if she could not outwalk him and could not manage to get rid of
+him in any other way, Polly decided that she would at least keep
+perfectly silent until he had the sense to go away of his own accord.
+It was still some distance before she could reach the cabin.
+
+However, as Billy was doing a great deal of talking, he appeared not to
+be aware of her unusual silence.
+
+"Look here, Miss Polly, I have been thinking of something for a long
+time--several months, in fact," he declared.  "And I have about come to
+the conclusion that maybe I was pretty domineering in the way in which
+I behaved to you in New York.  Of course I still consider that acting
+business a dreadful thing for you to have done which might have brought
+consequences that you could not imagine.  But I ought to have tried to
+persuade you to stop or to write your mother, and not to have bullied
+you.  I want you to believe, though, that it was because I like you so
+much that I went all to pieces over the idea of anything happening to
+you--your getting ill or somebody being rude to you.  Great Scott! but
+I am glad that you have given up that foolish idea of going upon the
+stage and have settled down quietly in Woodford!"
+
+Polly turned a pair of astonished blue eyes upon her companion, who
+happened at the moment to be gazing up toward the sky where the snow
+clouds were growing heavier.
+
+"You are very kind to be interested in my welfare, I am sure," she
+replied, trying her best not to let sarcastic tones creep into her
+voice.  "And of course I realized that your friendship for Mollie and
+mother made you feel that you had the right to express your opinion
+very frankly to me.  But you are mistaken if you believe that I have
+given up my foolish notion of going upon the stage.  Of course I
+appreciate now that I was wrong in betraying mother's trust and in
+trying that experiment in acting without her consent.  So I have
+accepted my punishment and made my bargain.  But just the same, when I
+am twenty-one, I mean to try again with all my strength and power and
+to keep on trying until I ultimately succeed."
+
+Billy Webster closed his lips with a look of peculiar obstinacy.
+
+"Three years is a long time," he answered, "and you might as well know
+that though I am fond of Mollie and always will be, it is you I really
+care about.  Oh yes, I realize that there are hours when I almost hate
+you, but that is because you dislike me and because I can't get you to
+do what I wish.  Still, you might as well understand that I intend
+doing everything in my power for the next three years to make you stay
+in Woodford when the time is up and to make you stay because you love
+me."
+
+And then before Polly was able to get her breath or to stamp her foot
+or in any possible way to relieve her feelings, the young man had
+marched away through an opening at one side of the path, without even
+stopping once to glance back at her.
+
+It was out of the question then for Polly to decide whether she was the
+more angry, astonished or amused.  Of course it was absurd for Billy
+Webster to conceive of having any emotion for her except one of
+disapproval.  He was simply so obstinate and so sure of himself that he
+wanted to make her like him, because he knew that she almost hated him.
+And if it had not been for Mollie, she would have suffered no "almost"
+in her dislike.
+
+Really the confusion and protest that the young man's words had
+awakened in her mind, coming on top of the disclosure about Betty, made
+Polly feel as if she had suddenly taken leave of her senses.  And as it
+is a rather good scheme when one is unable to think clearly, to give up
+thinking at all for the time being, the girl started running in the
+direction of the cabin, so fast that she had opportunity for no other
+impulse or impression except forcing herself to keep up the desired
+speed.
+
+By a camp fire, which Betty had built for herself, Polly discovered her
+friend sitting on a stool with her elbow in her lap and her head
+resting on her hand.  She did not seem astonished or annoyed by her
+friend's entrance.  When Polly came forward and kissed her she merely
+said, "I am glad you know, Polly.  I hope you did not have a very cold
+walk.  It was not snowing when I came out."  Then she began piling more
+logs on her fire.
+
+Later the two girls had an intimate talk.
+
+"It is odd, Polly, but I don't feel as wretched as I should have
+expected I would," Betty explained, speaking as much to herself as to
+her companion.  "I think perhaps it is intended for me to have my
+illusions shattered earlier in life than other people have them--I
+think possibly because I have been vainer and more foolish.  At first I
+presume I used to have a kind of unconscious satisfaction in our having
+more money than other people and in being able to do almost anything
+for my friends that I wished.  Then when the money went away I thought,
+well, perhaps money does not make so much difference if one has an old
+family and a name of which one may be proud.  But in these last few
+hours, sitting here by myself I have begun to appreciate more fully
+what our Camp Fire organization is trying so hard to teach us.  It is
+that all we girls are alike in the essential things, only that some of
+us have been given better opportunities and more friends.  There is
+only one thing that really counts, I suppose, and that is not so much
+what other people do for us, as what we are able to do for ourselves,
+what kind of women we are able to grow into.  So you see that though I
+believe I was struggling to save the old Ashton house because all my
+distinguished ancestors had been living there for generation after
+generation and I wanted to have babies of my own to inherit it some
+day, now I am even happier because perhaps I have saved it for Dick and
+mother by my plan and maybe it will repay them a little for all they
+have done for me."
+
+"I don't think the debt is on your side, dear," Polly returned loyally.
+
+But already Betty had risen from her stool and was looking around for
+her cloak and cap.
+
+"Let us hurry home now; we shall have a glorious walk!" she exclaimed.
+"I have been away from mother long enough and I do want to write to
+Esther.  She has got to come to see me for a few days, or else I am
+going to her.  Don't worry; I shall not forget the seven points of our
+Camp Fire star."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+FAREWELLS
+
+One morning in May two months later two girls were in the
+much-discussed back bedroom overlooking the Ashton garden.  It was very
+much the same kind of cheerless day outdoors that it had been when they
+had first met each other after a lapse of many years.  And then of
+course neither one knew of the closeness of the tie between them.
+However, at the present moment they were busily engaged in packing two
+steamer trunks that were standing open before them.
+
+"I never shall get all this stuff in if you don't come and help me,
+Esther," Betty protested in the spoiled fashion of an earlier time.
+And since Esther never would cease to believe that the whole world
+should be grateful to Betty for the honor of her presence in it, it is
+doubtful whether her methods of spoiling "The Princess" ever would be
+entirely given up.
+
+"Sit down, dear, or else run and see Polly and Mollie and Mrs. Wharton
+for a few moments.  You are tired and I can finish putting the things
+in for you without any trouble.  Poor Polly is kind of pathetic these
+days, I think; she is so desperate over our going away and leaving her
+behind, and then, though she tries her best not to show it, she is
+jealous of our being so much together.  I am sorry for her, because it
+is pretty much the same way that I used to feel toward her.  And of
+course I have tried to show her that no one can take her place with
+you; but she is so low-spirited and so unlike herself that there is no
+convincing her of anything agreeable."
+
+Betty had sunk into a low chair and was rocking thoughtfully back and
+forward knitting her brows.
+
+"Mother and I both consider that Mrs. Wharton is making a mistake in
+not allowing Polly to leave Woodford for three years; for she will
+probably grow so tired of it by that time that she will never want to
+come home again--that is, if she goes on the stage.  When it was
+decided that we were to go abroad mother suggested to Mrs. Wharton that
+she let Polly come over and join us later.  She thought it would be
+very much more apt to distract her attention than if she stayed on here
+with nothing else to dream about."
+
+"And what did Mrs. Wharton answer?" Esther queried, turning from her
+own trunk and beginning to straighten out the confusion in her sister's.
+
+"Oh, she wouldn't hear of it," Betty returned.  "So sometimes I feel
+pretty selfish at being so happy over our sailing.  But just think, we
+are going straight to Germany and dear old Dick!  It seems a hundred
+years since he went away.  How strangely things have turned out!  Here
+are Miss McMurtry and my new father getting married, when I have been
+predicting that they would, with no one believing me, ever since that
+evening at the cabin.  So they will be able to look after the house and
+let the people stay on in it just as if mother and I were here, and
+send us a check for the rent each month so that we will have enough to
+live upon.  But better than anything, Esther dear, is the wonderful
+chance you will have for your music.  You are going to study under one
+of the greatest teachers in the world and not because of what your own
+family believe about your talent, but because of what your teacher in
+New York wrote the Professor."  It was not often that Betty was able to
+speak of Herr Crippen as father; Mr. Ashton had been her father too
+long, and she had cared for him too much to be willing to give the
+title to any one else.  So "the Professor" and "Donna" were the names
+she ordinarily bestowed upon her new parents.
+
+"You must not expect too much of my singing, Betty," Esther replied in
+her same shy, nervous fashion.  "And, for goodness sake! don't write
+your brother Dick that my voice has improved, or he will be
+disappointed."
+
+Betty laughed teasingly.  "Oh, I have told him already that you were
+greater than Melba and Farrar rolled into one.  But never mind, Esther,
+he will soon find out the real truth for himself.  Isn't it too
+splendid how happy mother is over our plans!  She has not been so like
+herself since father's death.  And somehow instead of acting as if she
+had given me up to the Professor as a daughter, she behaves far more as
+if he had just presented her with you as well.  I believe she feels it
+helps to make up to you, Esther, for the years of loneliness--her being
+able now to chaperon you, when you so much need to have your big
+chance."
+
+Esther was kneeling on the floor; but she turned her light blue eyes
+appealingly upon her sister and her lips quivered, revealing her one
+beautiful feature in the mobility of the lines of her mouth and in the
+whiteness of her teeth.
+
+"You must not expect too much of me, little sister, will you?" she
+pleaded.  "You know I have only consented to father's making this big
+sacrifice for me so that we may all be abroad together, and you and
+Mrs. Ashton have the rest and change you so much need.  And then, of
+course, I may be able to learn to sing well enough some day to earn the
+money to buy you a Paris frock and hat," she ended with an attempt at
+lightness.
+
+However, Betty was not deceived, and getting up from her rocking chair,
+she deliberately pushed Esther aside.
+
+"For goodness sake! let me finish packing my own trunk, Esther
+Crippen," she commanded.  "Here I have been carefully trying to
+cultivate an angelic character ever since I became a Camp Fire girl,
+and in a few weeks of your spoiling you do away with the labor of
+years."
+
+Betty therefore was not looking up when some one tiptoed quietly into
+the room, and, before she became conscious of her presence, dropped a
+bunch of May blossoms under her eyes.
+
+"There are two automobiles waiting before your door at the present
+moment, children," Polly announced.  "And John Everett suggested that I
+tell you to get into your coats and hats at once.  He came home for the
+day; I've an idea he may have desired to say farewell to 'My Lady
+Betty,' but I was given no such information.  What I was told to say
+was that he and Meg were giving an automobile ride in your honor and
+that we were to end up by having our lunch at the cabin.  They have
+asked all the Camp Fire Club and some of John's friends, Billy
+Webster," and Polly's face expressed her chagrin.  "John has even
+invited Anthony Graham, and the poor fellow has fixed himself up until
+he is positively shining with cleanliness, though I am afraid he will
+be cold in that shabby overcoat of his."
+
+While Polly was chattering, she was assisting Betty to slip into her
+new violet dress which had been made for the steamer crossing and
+happily was lying ready and spread out upon the bed.  And the next
+instant she had pinned Esther's new blue _crepe de chine_ blouse down
+in the back, hurried them both into their heavy coats and hats, and was
+ushering them out to their friends, who were impatiently awaiting their
+coming.
+
+No one of the little party forgot their May day together in the woods
+and at the Sunrise Hill cabin for a long time to come.  And among the
+many kind things that were said to her in farewell, it was curious that
+the speech made by Anthony Graham should make the deepest impression
+upon Betty Ashton's mind.
+
+He had asked her come away from her other friends for a few moments,
+and they had walked to the edge of the group of pines not far from the
+foot of Sunrise Hill.  It was almost sunset, for no one had thought of
+going home after the late luncheon was over.
+
+Betty glanced about her rather wistfully.  This particular bit of
+country was dearer to her than any place in the world except her old
+home and yet she was leaving it for an unknown land, to be away she
+could not tell how long.
+
+"Miss Ashton," Anthony began, "there will probably be a good many
+changes in people and things before you come home again.  And I am
+hoping with all my strength that of the greatest changes will have
+taken place in me.  I mean that by that time you need not be ashamed of
+having befriended me.  It is pretty hard sometimes to climb a hill
+along with other people when you have started so much nearer the bottom
+than they have.  But I feel now that I have made at least a fair start.
+Judge Maynard told me yesterday that he believed I meant business and
+that he would teach me all the law he knew and that he would see that I
+wasn't far behind the fellows at the law schools when the time came for
+my examinations."
+
+Betty's face glowed with interest and enthusiasm and she gave her two
+hands to the young man with the same friendliness which she had used in
+his first call upon her.
+
+"I am so glad, so glad!" she answered.  "But please don't speak of my
+feeling ashamed of you ever again.  I know I was rather horrid to you
+once and that afterwards you saved my life, or what perhaps means more
+than one's life.  Suppose we promise to repay our debts to each other
+in some entirely new way when we meet after my return."  Betty made her
+idle speech with no special meaning attached to it.  And although
+Anthony agreed in much the same manner, it was possibly fortunate that
+Betty did not observe his expression as he turned away and walked a few
+paces ahead of her, gazing up toward the summit of Sunrise Hill.  The
+golden disk of the sun was at this instant resting upon it like the
+crown of the world.  And to Anthony it seemed none too beautiful or too
+magnificent a gift to have laid at the feet of a gray-eyed Princess.
+
+Voices were heard calling to them from the cabin, and a short while
+after good-nights were said and Sunrise Cabin was once more left to
+solitude and memories.
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+The next volume of the Camp Fire Girls' Series will be known as "The
+Camp Fire Girls Across the Seas."  Several years will have intervened
+between it and the previous book and the girls will be introduced under
+very different influences and circumstances.  Just how many of them
+will have crossed the seas and for what purposes, and how the old Camp
+Fire influence will still follow them, it is the plan of this story to
+reveal.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE OUTSIDE
+WORLD***
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