the little brown-haired daughter of
Virginia kept the boat ship-shape and looked after the wants of the
others.

They were by no means stay-at-homes, however. Mrs. Curtis had arranged
all sorts of good times in which the five young women took part. One of
her latest ideas was that her young guests should give a play. She had
engaged the private ballroom of the hotel for a certain evening, and
had arranged for the erection of a temporary stage on the day previous
to the evening on which the play was to be given. She and Madeleine had
invited a number of their friends and there would be a supper and dance
afterward.

Madeleine, who had developed into a veritable bookworm, had, after
considerable hunting, found a story called "The Decision," which she
had arranged as a play. There were but five characters in the play,
which was the story of a girl who, holding a position as private
secretary in the home of a man of wealth, discovers that his daughter,
a girl about her own age, has been unduly extravagant and, needing
money, has forged a check in her father's name. While she deliberates
as to what is to be done, the father discovers the forgery, and taxing
his daughter with it, she becomes panic-stricken and lays the forgery
at the door of the private secretary. Her employer, a hard man, brings
the two girls together, declaring that if his daughter is at fault he
will turn her from his home and utterly repudiate her.

A struggle begins in the secretary's mind. She realizes that if she
confesses falsely to the forgery, it means not only the loss of her own
position but her good name as well, whereas if she makes the daughter
of her employer admit her fault, it means that, driven from home, the
girl whose weakness has brought about this distressful situation stands
little or no chance of redeeming her error if thrust upon the mercy of
the world.

In the end the secretary shoulders the daughter's guilt and is about to
leave her employer's house forever, he having declined to prosecute
her, when his daughter, aroused to latent remorse by the nobility of
spirit of the girl she has wronged, confesses the truth, and is
forgiven by her father solely on account of the earnest pleading of the
other girl.

Madge had been chosen to play the secretary, Flora Harris the daughter.
Tom Curtis was to portray the role of the stern father, while Lillian
Seldon played a pert maid and Alfred Thornton an inquisitive footman.

Flora Harri