"That" was the voice of some one in the lower hall inquiring if Miss
Brown was in.

"It's that--that impertinent Maurice Whitlow!" whispered Estelle to Ruth
and Alice. "I thought I could escape him here. Oh, what shall I do?"

"I'll say you are not at home," returned Ruth, in her best "stage
society" manner, and, sweeping down the hall, she met the maid who was
coming up to tell Miss Brown there was a caller for her below.

"Tell him Miss Brown is not at home," said Ruth.

"Very well," and the maid smiled understandingly.

"Ah! not at home? Tell her I shall call again," came in drawling tones
up the stairway, for it was warm, and doors and windows were open.

"Little--snip!" murmured Estelle. "I'm so glad I didn't have to see him.
He's a pest--all the while wanting to take me out and buy ice-cream
sodas. He's just starting in at the movies, and he thinks he's a star
already. Oh! but don't you just love the guns and horses?" she asked
impulsively.

"Well, I can't say that I do," answered Ruth. "I like quieter plays."

"I don't!" cried Alice. "The more excitement the better I like it. I can
do my best then."

"So can I," said Estelle. Then they fell to talking of the work, and of
many other topics.

"Did Estelle Brown strike you as being peculiar?" asked Ruth of her
sister when they were back in their rooms, getting ready for bed.

"Peculiar? What do you mean?"

"I mean she didn't seem to know whether or not her people were in the
profession."

"Yes, she did side-step that a bit."

"Side-step, Alice?"

"Well, avoid answering, if you like that better. But my way is shorter.
Say, maybe she has gone into this without her people knowing it, and she
wants to keep them from bringing her back."

"Maybe, though it didn't strike me as being that way. It was as though
she wasn't quite sure of herself."

"Sure of herself--what do you mean?"

"Well, I can't explain it any better."

"I'll think it over," said Alice, sleepily. "We've got lots to do
to-morrow," and she tumbled into bed with a drowsy "good-night."

Miss Laura Dixon and Miss Pearl Pennington most decidedly turned up
their noses at the breakfast table when they saw Estelle sitting between
Ruth and Alice. And their murmurs of disdain could be plainly heard.

"She here? Then I'm going to leave!"

"The idea of amateurs butting in like this! It's a shame!"

Fortunately Estelle was exchanging some gay banter with Paul and did not
hear. But Ruth a