y.

"Jane, how can you let yourself be so plain, when you know now that
you're good looking?"

"It's better for me to be plain," she answered simply.

"Better? Why?"

"I like to be inconspicuous."

"Daughters of Eve! Jane, you're not human."

Jane made no answer. She went about her work, as usual, and Bobs's
various efforts to draw her out were vain. In the afternoon Jerry
arrived.

"Hello, Jerry," Bobs called. "Sorry I'm not up to piping. 'Lo, the
conquering hero comes.'"

"How's your health?"

"Hang my health! How was your show? I can't get a word out of Jane
Judd."

"Is she here?"

"Yes."

"She was the big hit of the thing. Miss Jane Judd," he shouted.

She appeared at the door.

"Good-afternoon, Mr. Paxton. I have the costume in a box and I'll leave
it at your studio."

"Why did you run away?"

"I had nothing more to do, so I went home."

"That line might be used as Jane's epitaph," laughed Bobs.

"But everybody wanted to meet you. I rushed about looking for you,
until old Christiansen told me you had gone home."

"Martin Christiansen?" inquired Bobs.

"Yes. Mrs. Brendon said he laid the praise on thick. Not often you get
him to say a decent thing. He raved about Jane Judd."

"You _were_ flying high, Jane," Bobs commented.

"I can never thank you enough. It was bully of you to do it, and you
gave a great performance. Would you mind telling me where you studied
acting?"

"I haven't studied it. I'm glad I didn't mix things up for you," she
replied, and went back to her work.

"I can't get her," Jerry remarked. "She was really immense, Bobs. Got
more applause than any of them. Do you suppose she is an actress? Who
the deuce is Jane?"

"I don't know and I can't find out. She is baffling. She will not talk
about herself. I think she despises us all, rather. Think of knowing you
were a beauty, and going back to looking as she does to-day. She says
it's better for her to be plain."

"I don't know how her looks ever got by me. Old Christiansen sweetly
suggested that it was because she was not the obvious type. He asked all
about her."

"How exciting! Tell me about the whole thing, Jerry, from the very
first."

He obeyed, making a good story of it, with thumbnail sketches of
characters as he went along. Bobs was hugely amused. When he came to the
supper which Mrs. Brendon gave after the performance to a chosen few,
she interrupted him.

"Who is Althea Morton, Jerry?"

"She's a gre