his eyes on the satchel
and coat, and hid them away in the big property trunk. She would be out
in a minute, and these wonders were not to be revealed to her until the
close of the night's performance.

Jim put down the lid of the trunk and sat upon it, feeling like a
criminal because he was hiding something from Polly.

His consciousness of guilt was increased as he recalled how often she
had forbidden Toby and himself to rush into reckless extravagances for
her sake, and how she had been more nearly angry than he had ever seen
her, when they had put their month's salaries together to buy her the
spangled dress for her first appearance. It had taken a great many
apologies and promises as to their future behaviour to calm her, and now
they had again disobeyed her. It would be a great relief when to-night's
ordeal was over.

Jim watched Polly uneasily as she came from the dressing tent and
stopped to gaze at the nearby church steeple. The incongruity of the
slang, that soon came from her delicately formed lips, was lost upon him
as she turned her eyes toward him.

"Say, Jim," she said, with a Western drawl, "them's a funny lot of guys
what goes to them church places, ain't they?"

"Most everybody has got some kind of a bug," Jim assented; "I guess they
don't do much harm."

"'Member the time you took me into one of them places to get me out a
the rain, the Sunday our wagon broke down? Well, that bunch WE butted
into wouldn't a give Sell's Brothers no cause for worry with that show
a' theirn, would they, Jim?" She looked at him with withering disgust.
"Say, wasn't that the punkiest stunt that fellow in black was doin' on
the platform? You said Joe was only ten minutes gettin' the tire onto
our wheel, but say, you take it from me, Jim, if I had to wait another
ten minutes as long as that one, I'd be too old to go on a-ridin'."

Jim "'lowed" some church shows might be better than "that un," but Polly
said he could have her end of the bet, and summed up by declaring it no
wonder that the yaps in these towns was daffy about circuses, if they
didn't have nothin' better an' church shows to go to.

One of the grooms was entering the lot with Polly's horse. She stooped
to tighten one of her sandals, and as she rose, Jim saw her sway
slightly and put one hand to her head. He looked at her sharply,
remembering her faintness in the parade that morning.

"You ain't feeling right," he said uneasily.

"You just bet I am,"