inking-cap," begged Bess.

"I have thought," her chum replied. "I thought of trying to trace her
through the people who sell flowers to her. I asked Mrs. Beasley, and she
told me that the flowers Inez sells come from the hotels and big
restaurants where they have been on the tables over night. They are
sorted and sold cheap to street pedlers like Inez. Hundreds of little
ragamuffins buy and hawk these bouquets about the streets. The men who
handle the trade would not be likely to remember one little girl.

"Besides," added Nan, smiling sadly. "Inez is a bankrupt. She is out of
business altogether. The few pennies she saved back every day--rain or
shine, whether she went hungry, or was fed--was her capital; and that her
aunt took away. I'm dreadfully worried about the poor thing," concluded
Nan, with moist eyes.

She felt so bad about it that she could not bring herself to join the
matinee party that had been arranged by Grace for that afternoon. Some of
the girls were going to have a box at a musical comedy, with Miss Hagford
as chaperon.

Nan did not plead a headache; indeed, she was not given to white lies.
She wished to call on the lovely actress whom she had met the day of her
adventure in the department store. She wanted to inquire if she had seen
or heard anything of the runaways, Sallie and Celia.

"I'd dearly love to go with you," Bess observed. "Just think of your
knowing such a famous woman. You have all the luck, Nan Sherwood."

"I'm not sure that it was _good_ fortune that brought me in contact with
the lady," Nan returned ruefully.

"Well! it turned out all right, at least," said Bess. "And _my_ escapades
never do. I never have any luck. If it rained soup and I was hungry, you
know I wouldn't have any spoon."

Nan set forth before the other girls started for the theatre. She knew
just how to find the fashionable apartment hotel in which the actress
lived, for she and her friends had passed it more than once in the car.

At the desk the clerk telephoned up to the actress' apartment to see if
she was in, and would receive Nan. The maid did not understand who Nan
was, and was doubtful; but the moment Madam came to the telephone herself
and heard Nan's name, she cried:

"Send her up--send her up! She is just the one I want to see."

This greatly excited Nan, for she thought of Sallie and Celia. When she
was let out of the elevator on one of the upper floors, the apartment
door was open, and Madam he