of
movement and naturalness than those two poor creatures--positively!"
cried the moving picture director, with emphasis.

"Ah, well! I must not excite myself. This is my time for relaxation,
and--a second cup of tea!"

Her light laughter jarred a bit on Nan Sherwood's troubled mind.

"To think!" the lovely actress said, continuing, "that it never occurred
to my mind that those two awkward misses might be your runaways until I
was standing on one side watching the scene as they passed out. One was
crying. Of course I am sorry I had to order their discharge, but one must
sacrifice much for art," sighed Madam.

"One was crying, and I heard the other call her 'Celia.' And then the
crying girl said: 'I can't help it, Sallie. I am discouraged'--or
something like that.

"Of course, you understand, my dear, my mind was engaged with far more
important matters. My sub-consciousness must have filmed the words, and
especially the girls' names. After the scene suited me, it suddenly came
back to me that those names were the _real_ names of the runaway girls.
They had given Mr. Gray fictitious names, of course. When I sent him out
to find them, he was just too late. The girls had left the premises."

CHAPTER XXIV

OTHER PEOPLE'S WORRIES

Nan had written home quite fully about the presentation of the medal. It
was the first her father and mother had known of the courage she had
displayed so many weeks before in saving the life of the tiny girl at
the Junction.

The fact that some of her fellow passengers had seen the act and
considered it worthy of commemoration, of course, pleased Mr. and Mrs.
Sherwood; but that Nan had been in peril herself on the occasion,
naturally worried her mother.

"I hope you will not go about seeking other adventures, my dear child,"
wrote her mother, with gentle raillery. "What with your announcement of
the presentation of the medal, and Mrs. Mason's enthusiastic letter,
your father and I begin to believe that we have a kind of female knight
errant for a daughter. I am afraid we never shall get our little Nan
back again."

Nan did not really need any bubble of self-importance pricked in this
way. She was humbly thankful to have been able to save the little girl
from the snake, and that the horrid creature had not harmed her, either.

She had hidden the medal away, and would not display it or talk about it.
The thought that her name and her exploit were on the Roll of Honor of
the Na