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"If you please, let me take a seat
in the shadow here," prettily pleaded
the young girL "I have a headache
from hurrying so. The light hurts
my eyes, too."
"Why certainly, answered Roy, as
he turned a seat and sat down oppo
site her, laying aside his light over
coat and hat.
"Dear! I am quite chilly!" shivered
his companion. "It will pass away If
I can rest for a little. May I?" and
as he nodded promptly she took up
his overcoat and wrapped it about
her. Then she asked him to place
her hat in the rack overhead. When
he had done this he was surprised to
see that she had appropriated his
own broad-brimmed hat.
"It shades my poor, suffering eyes
so splendidly," she explained, look
ing for all the world like some pretty
boy as she snuggled into the corner
of the seat,
"Well, she is an original!" com
mented Roy, a little wonderingly.
He passed the tickets to t&e con
ductor as he came along. That of
ficial was accompanie'd by two men.
They looked like detectives. They
scanned the various passengers
sharply.
"Well," remarked one of them, as
he reached, the end of the coach,
"she's not aboard this train. We'll
get off at the junction and wait for
the next one." ,
Abruptly, as the train left the junc
tion, Roy's companion magically
awoke from invalid lethargy to the
utmost animation and 'talkativeness.
She pronounced her headache and
pained eyes gone. She dazzled him
with smiles, chatting and laughing.
She accepted his flowers with a
grateful look that thrilled him. She
took to the candy like some bright
schoolgirl. She charmed, she en
thralled. "Sister Nettie will be so glad to
see you," he had said.
" "Dear Sister Nettie!" murmured
his companion, and Roy eyed her
strangely as he detected the faintest
undertone chuckle in the utterance.
When he told her of the profession
for which he had recently qualified,'
that of a lawyer, she betrayed so
great an interest in the same that he
was puzzled.
They reached Milburn as well ac
quainted as if they had been close
friends for years. She grew sud
denly serious as they left the train,
and hesitated as he led her to the car
riage in waiting.
"Had I not better that is per
haps I had better not see your sis
ter until tomorrow," she stammered
vaguely.
"Why, Nettle is expecting you!"
replied Roy, fairly astounded and
mystified at the strange remarks.
"My dear Irene!" cried Mrs. Doug
las, ready to rush into the arms of
her visitor as she was ushered into
the house by Roy. Then she paused.
"Why, who is this?" she asked
vaguely.
Her guest sat down in the nearest
chair. Her bonny face grew pale.
She controlled herself in a moment
or two. She arose to her feet. All
the animation and fun was gone from
her sunny face.
"I am an impostor!" she sobbed.
"I hope you good people will forgive
me, but I had to do it to to escape."
"To escape what?" projected the
perplexed Roy.
It was a brief but an interesting
story. It told of a wicked tyrant, of
a guardian, of a plot to defraud her
of a fortune. She was Violet Hayes.
She had been accepted as Miss Net
tleton by Roy and it enabled her to
escape emissaries of her uncle look
ing for her.
"You see," she said, with a be
witching look of appeal at Roy, "you
are a lawyer and I have a lot of pa
pers to be looked over, and so "
"You poor, homeless dear!" ex
claimed Mrs. Douglas, and she took
theorphan and stranger into her lov
ing arms. "But what can have be
come of Irene?"
Irene had eloped with a young man.
..u-,LOTi.
