sing for neither hat nor
cape, she plunged down from the platform, fled blindly through the aisle
and rushed out of the open door.

Up the rocky path she stumbled, but stopped on the summit of the first
rise. What was the use of running away? He would find her and the
punishment would come sooner or later. It might as well come now and be
over with. Up on the nearest boulder she crept and waited, a heap of
frozen misery. Would he remain until the exercises were over? How would
he punish her?

The waiting was short, although to her it seemed hours before the
parents and children came out of the hall and dispersed to their various
homes. A few passed her on the trail, but she did not see them--not even
Carrie, sobbing aloud as she stumbled along beside her mother.

When they were all gone, her father suddenly stood before her. When he
came, or how he got there, she did not know.

"Tabitha Catt," she heard his even tones saying, "get down from there."

She slid to the ground beside him.

"Come with me."

She turned and followed him, not down the hill to the cottage as she had
expected, but back towards town. The day was warm, but she was shivering
violently, and even her teeth chattered until it seemed as if the silent
man at her side could not fail to hear them.

"What have you told these people your name was?" the same even tones
demanded.

"Theodora Marcella Gabrielle Julianna Victoria Emeline. I never told
anyone but Carrie and Miss Brooks."

A glimmer of a smile played around the man's stern mouth, hidden by his
moustache.

"And Tom's? What name did you give Tom?"

"Dionysius Ulysses Humphrey Llewelyn."

"Hm, not as long as yours."

"He thought it would do. I had some more he might have had."

"So he called himself that jargon, did he?"

"Oh, no! He couldn't remember them. That was just my name for him."

"Well, Miss Tabitha Catt, you have told these people a lie."

Lie? Tabitha was startled. Lie? Was it a lie to change one's name--just
one's first name? It had not appealed to her in that light before. But
the relentless voice was still speaking. What was it saying?

"You have stolen your aunt's dress--"

"I--"

"Not a word yet, Tabitha Catt. When I have finished, you will have a
chance to explain. You are to go to every store and hotel in this town
and say--listen now, so you will get it straight, 'I told you a lie. My
name is Tabitha Catt and not Theodora Marcella Gabrielle Julianna
Victo