behind that
painted mask.

"I wish I didn't have such a blob of a nose," she said ruefully. "There
is mighty little to be done with a nose like mine unless I have
paraffin injected under the skin right on top. Of course, I could make
it up for the stage from the outside, but not for close inspection. Are
my skirts too short for decency?"

Josie grimaced comically at her friends.

"No shorter than some we see, but to think of our Josie looking like
that!" gasped Irene. "Let's see you walk."

Josie minced off with a good deal of hip movement according to the
fashion of the day.

"I'd like to wear run-down heels, but I can't afford to ruin my feet. I
have a pair of fancy blue and gray shoes I got at a second-hand shop
and I'll put those on for dress occasions, but I'll have to wear my own
decently sensible shoes when I am at work. I am going to be in town for
a few days yet, but won't be staying here but at a swell third-class
boarding house on Centre Street. If I should come in here and you have
customers do you think you can keep straight faces?"

"We'll try!" giggled the partners.

"Here comes somebody now," cried Elizabeth. "You'd better hide!"

But there was no time to hide. The visitors turned out to be Mrs.
Wright and a Mrs. Hasbrook, a rich woman who had recently moved to
Dorfield, and according to Mrs. Wright's custom she had been among the
first to call on the newcomer and now had her in tow telling her where
to buy and what to buy. She had conducted her to the Higgledy-Piggledy
Shop as a place where her fine damask could be laundered well. Mrs.
Wright had recovered from her mortification over Elizabeth's engaging
in this strange occupation and now that the shop was proving so
successful and so fashionable she was not only reconciled but very
proud of her daughter's connection with it and she took every
opportunity to come to the shop and to bring others there.

"Where is Miss O'Gorman?" demanded Mrs. Wright. "I want Mrs. Hasbrook
to talk with her concerning this work."

"She is not in," faltered Elizabeth.

"Not in! I saw her come in not half an hour ago. Mrs. Hasbrook was
having a shampoo just across the street and I certainly saw Miss
O'Gorman enter the building and I have not seen her depart."

Elizabeth looked hopeless under this relentless questioning of her
determined parent. She turned to Josie for help. Josie arose to the
occasion with such spirit that Mary Louise and Irene were taken
co