dear," she apologized. "You know I have been
insisting each day that the next I was going to do exactly what you
girls do and try to pretend I am as young as the rest of you. But I have
not the valor, and besides you will have a far more thrilling time
without a chaperon. Kiss me good-by and take care of pretty Betty." And
Margaret Adams waved her hand in farewell to the other two girls.

Since their stay in the German forests she had insisted that the girls
treat her as much as possible like one of themselves, that they forget
her profession and her age, and as a sign they were all to call one
another by their first names.

To Betty Ashton this act of friendliness had not been difficult; it had
actually been harder for Polly, who had known Miss Adams so much more
intimately, and most trying of all to Esther because of her natural
timidity.

In the first place Betty did not often think of their new acquaintance
as a great actress. Once several years before she had been introduced to
Miss Adams in Woodford, but later had considered her merely in her
relation to Polly. She of course felt very strongly the older woman's
magnetism, just as the world did, and was proud and grateful for this
opportunity to know her. Indeed, Polly in the past few days had to have
several serious talks with herself in order to stifle a growing
sensation of jealousy. Of course she perfectly appreciated how pretty
and charming the Princess was and how she had attracted people all her
life. Yet she was not going to pretend that she was noble enough to be
willing to have Miss Adams prefer the Princess to her humble self.

As Polly joined her two friends she found herself surveying Betty with
an air that tried hard to be critical; but there was no use in
attempting it this morning. Betty was too ridiculously pretty and
unconscious of it. For, seeing that Polly seemed slightly annoyed with
her, she slipped her hand into hers, as the three of them started off
for the village. In her other hand she carried her old Camp Fire Manual.

Betty was dressed in an inexpensive white muslin with a broad white
leather belt and a big straw hat encircled with a wreath of blue corn
flowers. Probably her entire outfit had cost less than a single pair of
slippers in the days of their wealth.

"I hope, Esther, that you have not allowed Betty to go about the country
alone before I joined you," Polly began in her old half-mocking and
half-serious tones.

Betty l