other houses where rooms might possibly be had. These suggestions she
addressed entirely to the clerk--who, upon receiving them, did more
telephoning.

"Have you tried Mrs. Eichelberger?" the young lady asked him, after
several more failures.

He had not, but promptly did so. His conversation with Mrs. Eichelberger
started promisingly, but presently we heard him make the damning
admission he had been compelled repeatedly to make before:

"No, ma'am. It's two men."

Then, just as the last hope seemed to be fading, our angel of mercy
spoke again.

"Wait!" she put in impulsively. "Tell her--tell her I recommend them."

Thus informed, Mrs. Eichelberger became compliant; but when the details
were arranged, and we turned to thank our benefactor, she had fled.

Mrs. Eichelberger's house was but a few blocks distant from the Gilmer.
She installed us in two large, comfortable rooms, remarking, as we
entered, that we had better hurry, as we were already late.

"Late for what?" one of us asked.

"Didn't you come for the senior dramatics?"

"Senior dramatics where?"

"At the I.I. and C."

"What is the I.I. and C?"

At this question a look of doubt, if not suspicion, crossed the lady's
face.

"Where are you-all from?" she demanded.

The statement that we came from New York seemed to explain
satisfactorily our ignorance of the I.I. and C. Evidently Mrs.
Eichelberger expected little of New Yorkers. The I.I. and C., she
explained, was the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College,
formerly known as the Female College, a State institution for young
women; and the senior dramatics were even then in progress in the
college chapel, just up the street.

To the chapel, therefore, my companion and I repaired as rapidly as
might be, guided thither by frequent sounds of applause.

From among the seniors standing guard in cap and gown at the chapel
door, the quick artistic eye of my companion selected a brown-eyed
auburn-haired young goddess as the one from whom tickets might most
appropriately be bought. Nor did he display thrift in the transaction.
Instead of buying modest quarter seats he magnificently purchased the
fifty-cent kind.

The dazzling ticket seller, transformed to usher, now led us into the
crowded auditorium and down an aisle. A few rows from the stage she
stopped, and, fastening a frigid gaze upon two hapless young women who
were seated some distance in from the passageway, bade them emerge and
yield