er there, Florence Winter, is a dancer. She does all
kinds of classical dances and is considered very wonderful. And Mr.
Carlton is the pianist. He is the man standing over there talking to
the lady in black."

Dorothy looked at each person as Ruth pointed them out, and felt that
she would enjoy her trip very much, for they all looked like nice,
congenial people. Mr. Ludlow came up to her then and presented Mrs.
Calvert, Dorothy and Alfy to all the members of the company, each in
turn, Miss Robbia, Miss Winter and Mr. Carlton.

They then all said good-bye to all their friends and relatives who
had come to see them off, and hastened to board their car, which was
to start in a few minutes.

"Good-bye, my little girl," whispered Jim, kissing a stray lock of
Dorothy's hair as he swung off the car.

The car gave one jerk and then started out. The girls waved good-bye
from the car windows till they could no longer see the ones they were
leaving behind.

It would take the remainder of the afternoon to reach Washington, and
there they were to meet one or two more members of the company, and to
learn of the final plans for the whole trip.

CHAPTER XII.

IN WASHINGTON.

The train ride passed quickly enough, and just gave Aunt Betty time
for a rest. Between intervals of reading, Dorothy told Ruth of all the
previous day's happenings, and before they knew it they had arrived in
Washington.

Mr. Dauntrey came to Dorothy and volunteered to take care of their
baggage. Aunt Betty had packed the suit cases for all three of them,
so she gave him these, saying, "If you will have these in the hotel
bus, Mr. Dauntrey, I will be obliged. We shall not get our trunk up to
the hotel till late this evening, I heard Mr. Ludlow say."

"What hotel do we stop at, Mr. Dauntrey?" inquired Ruth.

"At the Willard, Miss Boothington," he answered, politely adding, "I
will come back for your suit cases and tend to you in just a few
seconds if you will wait in the car for me."

"Thank you," the girl answered, going back into the car to gather her
things together. "There, that is all, I guess, a bag, a hat box and
one suit case. I can manage to exist with that much for a few days."

"Come along. Just follow me," cried Mr. Ludlow, just loud enough for
all to hear him. "This way. I want to get you all taken care of and
over to the hotel as quickly as possible. I have made reservations and
I hope everything will be ready at once for us.