the Ashton front door unlocked she entered without stopping to
ring the bell, and made straight, not for Betty's, but for Mrs.
Ashton's bedroom. She found her lying upon the bed, though at her
visitor's entrance she sat up, appearing quite ill.

"O Mrs. Ashton, why didn't Betty come to school today? Where is she?
Has anything happened? I was dreadfully worried when I found she was
not at any of her classes, and then when I asked Miss McMurtry whether
anything was the matter, she was so queer and mysterious. And when I
said I was going to leave school and come here at once, she said that I
had better not, that Betty had specially asked to be alone and that
even you had not seen her this morning. Donna behaved just as though
she knew something about my beloved Betty that I don't. And it is not
fair. I am sure Betty would wish me to know. Where is she?"

"Sit down, Polly," Mrs. Ashton returned, getting up from the bed and
taking a seat opposite. "I don't know where Betty is just now and I am
very uneasy and very unhappy about her. The poor child has had so many
things happen in the past year, after being spoiled in every possible
way up till then. She was in her own room most of the morning, but
about two hours ago sent word to me that she was going out and that I
was not to be alarmed if she did not return for some little time. I
might as well tell you our secret, dear. I suppose there is no way now
to keep people from knowing it eventually and perhaps we have been
unkind and unwise in concealing it from Betty so long. I wonder if you
have ever dreamed that Betty is Esther Crippen's sister?"

Polly gasped. No, she had not dreamed it. If the suspicion had ever
entered her mind, she had put it from her as a self-evident absurdity.
Her beautiful, exquisite Princess and Esther and Herr Crippen! It was
an impossible association of ideas and of people.

"But it can't be true, Mrs. Ashton," she argued almost angrily, feeling
that the room was whirling about and that she was almost ill from the
surprise and shock. And if this was her sensation, what could Betty's
have been! "Think how lovely Betty is and how utterly unlike either of
them. Besides, why have we never known and how did you happen to do
it?" Polly dropped her face in her two hands. She so very seldom
cried that the effort always hurt her.

"It is a tragic story, dear, and one we have never liked to talk about
for all our sakes," Mrs. Ashton