ds,
caused her to look like a great rag-doll with most of the sawdust missing.
The others of the party arranged themselves on cushions and chairs about
her, ready to fall, tooth and nail, upon the remains of the roast chicken.
Azzie would not eat, but kept her hand hidden in the folds of her gown.

"You needn't be talking in stage whispers," she began, with a fine touch
of Irish in her voice. "Smiles won't hear you--or at least she won't be
coming here. Yell, if you choose, or dance a clog. You're as safe as
though Smiles was in Halifax."

"Don't be too sure. I never like to run a risk," said Landis. "I should
not like to be called into the office to-morrow."

"I have found it this way with Mrs. Schuyler," explained Mary Wilson. "The
moment you are sure she isn't about, that is the moment you can be sure
she is ready to pounce on you."

"But she won't be here now. I'll yell and see." She yelled--a yell that
must have have reached to the end of the dormitory and pierced any number
of closed doors. The girls suppressed their half-frightened giggles, and
waited. Azzie was right. Mrs. Schuyler did not appear.

"Why doesn't she come?" asked Min Kean in a whisper. "She surely heard
that."

"Because I've taken her scalp," said Azzie. So speaking, she drew forth
her hand, dangling two sets of false fronts.

"Oh, you didn't dare!"

"How could you!"

"You'll be sent home, Azzie."

"How did you ever get them?" asked Elizabeth. To her, such an act was more
than merely hazardous. It was recklessness itself.

"Oh, I got them," said Azzie coolly. "I had a bit of neuralgia. A wisdom
tooth has been bothering me for a long time, and I stopped in after the
retiring-bell rang to ask Mrs. Schuyler for a drop of medicine to put in
it. She was ready for bed. Say, girls, did you ever see her when she
wasn't rigged out? She looked like a fright. She hasn't much hair left,
but what she has was done up in curling kids. And these," dangling the
false fronts before their eyes, "these lay reposing on the top of the
dresser. I brought them along to show you girls how fine they are--two
grades, one for every day and one for dress-up days."

"Don't shake them so close over my cocoa, please," cried Landis, removing
her cup beyond the reach of Azzie's scalps.

"I felt safe about coming so long as I had these," continued Azzie. "Don't
be afraid, Landis. A few hairs more or less won't hurt your supper."

"How will you get them back?" asked