wn of Semantha. Probably it was all I ever should
have known had not a sharp attack of sickness kept me away from the
theatre for a time, during which absence Semantha made the discovery
which was to bring her nearer to me.

Finding my dressing place but a barren waste of pine board, Semantha
with smiling readiness turned to the dressing place on her left for a
pin or two, and was stricken with amazement when the milder of her two
companions remarked in a grudgingly unwilling tone, "You may take a few
of my pins and hair-pins if you are sure to pay them back again."

While she was simply stunned for a moment, when the other companion,
with that rare, straightforward brutality for which she became so
deservedly infamous later on, snorted angrily: "No, you don't! Don't you
touch anything of mine! You can't sponge on me as you do on Clara!"

Now Semantha was a German, as we were apt to find out if ever she grew
excited over anything; and whenever she had a strange word used to her,
she would repeat that word several times, first to make sure she fully
understood its meaning, next to impress it upon her memory; so there she
stood staring at her dressing mate, and slowly, questioningly repeated,
"Spoonge? spoonge? w'at is that spoonge?" And received for answer,
"_What is_ it? why, it's stealing." Semantha gave a cry. "Yes,"
continued the straightforward one, "it's stealing without secrecy;
that's what sponging is."

Poor Semantha--astonished, insulted, frightened--turned her quivering
face to the other girl and passionately cried, "Und she, my Fraeulein
Clara, tink she dat I steal of her?"

Then for the first time, and I honestly believe the last time in her
life, that other pretty blond, but woolly-brained, young woman rose to
the occasion--God bless her--and answered stoutly, "No, Clara never
thought you were stealing."

So it happened that when I returned to work, and Semantha's excited and
very German welcome had been given, I noticed a change in her. When my
eyes met hers, instead of smiling instantly and broadly at me, her eyes
sank to the ground and her face flushed painfully. At last we were left
alone for a few moments. Quick as a flash, Semantha shut the door and
bolted it with the scissors. Then she faced me; but what a strange, new
Semantha it was! Her head was down, her eyes were down, her very body
seemed to droop. Never had I seen a human look so like a beaten dog. She
came quite close, both hands hangin