y, before the detective could remove the trembling girl from
the spot, or many curious people gather to stare and comment upon the
incident, the wonderfully dressed woman said to the detective in her
careless drawl:

"Wait! Quite dramatic, I must say. So this other girl steps in and
accuses our young heroine--without being asked even? I would doubt such
testimony seriously, were I _you_, sir."

"But, madam!" exclaimed the man.

"_What_ a situation--for the film!" pursued the woman, raising her
lorgnette to look first at Nan and then at Linda Riggs. The latter was
flushing and paling by turns--fearful at what she had done to her
schoolmate, yet glad she had done it, too!

As the customer wheeled slowly in her stately way to view the railroad
magnate's daughter, the clerk uttered a stifled cry, and on the heels of
it the detective dropped Nan's arm to hop around the woman in great
excitement.

"Wait, madam! wait, madam! wait!" he reiterated. "It is here--it is
here!"

"What is the matter with you, pray?" asked the woman, curiously. "Have
you taken leave of your senses? Why don't you stand still?"

"The lavalliere!" gasped the man and, reaching suddenly, he plucked the
dangling chain from an entangling frog on her fur garment. "Here it is,
madam!" he cried, with immense satisfaction.

"Now, fancy!" drawled the woman.

Linda slipped out of sight behind some other people. Nan felt faint--just
as though she would drop. The clerk and the detective were lavish in
their apologies to Nan. As for the woman whose garment had been the cause
of all the trouble, she merely laughed.

"Fancy!" she said, in her low, pleasant drawl. "Just fancy! had I not
chanced to be known to you, and a customer of the store, I might have
been marched up to the superintendent's office myself. It really _is_ a
wonderfully good situation for a film--a real moving picture scene made
to order."

CHAPTER XVIII

THE RUNAWAYS AGAIN

Nan was ordinarily brave enough. But the disgrace of this scene--in which
the fashionably attired woman merely saw the dramatic possibilities--well
nigh broke the girl's spirit. If she moved from this place she feared the
whispering people would follow her; if she remained, they would remain to
gape and wonder.

The troubled girl glanced hurriedly around. Was there no escape? Suppose
her chum and Mrs. Mason and Grace should appear, searching for her?

The floodgates of her tears were all but raised when