e she can do any more harm than the other," muttered the
desperate director. "Send her up here, boy. Odd I should not have known
there was an understudy for Innocent Delight."

Neale went down to the row of seats in which Agnes and a few of the
"penitent sisterhood" sat. "Say!" he said, grinning at Agnes and
whispering into her pretty ear, "Now's your chance to show us what you
can do."

"What do you mean, Neale O'Neil?" she gasped.

"The professor is looking for somebody to walk through Trix's part--just
for this rehearsal, of course."

"Oh, Neale!" exclaimed the Corner House girl, clasping her hands.
"They'd never let me do it."

"I don't believe you can," laughed Neale. "But you can try if you want
to. He told me to send you up to him. There he stands on the stage now."

Agnes rose up giddily. At first she felt that she could not stand.
Everything seemed whirling about her. Neale, with his past experience of
the circus in his mind, had an uncanny appreciation of her feelings.

"Buck up!" he whispered. "Don't have stage-fright. You don't have to
say half the words if you don't want to."

She flashed him a wonderful look. Her vision cleared and she smiled.
Right there and then Agnes, by some subtle power that had been given her
when she was born into this world, became changed into the character of
Innocent Delight--the part which she had already learned so well.

She had sat here throughout each rehearsal and listened to Professor
Ware's comments and the stage manager's instructions. She knew the cues
perfectly. There was not an inflection or pose in the part that she had
not perfected her voice and body in. The other girls watched her move
toward the stage curiously--Neale with a feeling that he had never
really known his little friend before.

"Hello, who's this?" asked one of the male professionals when Agnes came
to the group upon the stage.

"The very type!" breathed Madam Shaw, who had just come upon the
platform in her street costume. "Professor! why did you not get _this_
girl for Innocent Delight?"

"I have," returned the director, drily. "You are the one who has studied
the part?" he asked Agnes.

"Yes, sir," she said, and all her bashfulness left her.

"Open your first scene," commanded the professor, bruskly.

The command might have confused a professional--especially when the
player had had no opportunity of rehearsing save in secret. But Agnes
had forgotten everything but the character