he stage.

Mr. Thomas was the only cool one in the party. He was quietly taking
stock of his young companion,--of her innocence and charm. She was a
pretty girl, little and dainty, but well developed for her age. Her hair
was very black and wavy, and some strain of the South's chivalric blood,
which is so curiously mingled with the African in the veins of most
coloured people, had tinged her skin to an olive hue.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" he leaned over and whispered to her. His
voice was very confidential and his lips near her ear, but she did not
notice.

"Oh, yes," she answered, "this is grand. How I 'd like to be an actress
and be up there!"

"Maybe you will some day."

"Oh, no, I 'm not smart enough."

"We 'll see," he said wisely; "I know a thing or two."

Between the first and second acts a number of Thomas's friends strolled
up to where he sat and began talking, and again Kitty's embarrassment
took possession of her as they were introduced one by one. They treated
her with a half-courteous familiarity that made her blush. Her mother
was not pleased with the many acquaintances that her daughter was
making, and would have interfered had not Mrs. Jones assured her that
the men clustered about their host's seat were some of the "best people
in town." Joe looked at them hungrily, but the man in front with his
sister did not think it necessary to include the brother or the rest of
the party in his miscellaneous introductions.

One brief bit of conversation which the mother overheard especially
troubled her.

"Not going out for a minute or two?" asked one of the men, as he was
turning away from Thomas.

"No, I don't think I 'll go out to-night. You can have my share."

The fellow gave a horse laugh and replied, "Well, you 're doing a great
piece of work, Miss Hamilton, whenever you can keep old Bill from goin'
out an' lushin' between acts. Say, you got a good thing; push it along."

The girl's mother half rose, but she resumed her seat, for the man was
going away. Her mind was not quiet again, however, until the people were
all in their seats and the curtain had gone up on the second act. At
first she was surprised at the enthusiasm over just such dancing as she
could see any day from the loafers on the street corners down home, and
then, like a good, sensible, humble woman, she came around to the idea
that it was she who had always been wrong in putting too low a value on
really worthy things. So sh