o one would
think anything about it. Isn't that so?"

"Yes," she admitted slowly.

"Well, then, why not now?"

"It's always so much harder to work out a falsehood," she replied
thoughtfully.

"I know it, but you can come. Won't you?"

"Won't you wait a little while?" she pleaded. "It's so very sudden.
I'm afraid."

"Not a day, sweet, that I can help. Can't you see how I feel? Look
in my eyes. Will you?"

"Yes," she replied sorrowfully, and yet with a strange thrill of
affection. "I will."

CHAPTER XXIII

The business of arranging for this sudden departure was really not
so difficult as it first appeared. Jennie proposed to tell her mother
the whole truth, and there was nothing to say to her father except
that she was going with Mrs. Bracebridge at the latter's request. He
might question her, but he really could not doubt Before going home
that afternoon she accompanied Lester to a department store, where she
was fitted out with a trunk, a suit-case, and a traveling suit and
hat. Lester was very proud of his prize. "When we get to New York I am
going to get you some real things," he told her. "I am going to show
you what you can be made to look like." He had all the purchased
articles packed in the trunk and sent to his hotel. Then he arranged
to have Jennie come there and dress Monday for the trip which began in
the afternoon.

When she came home Mrs. Gerhardt, who was in the kitchen, received
her with her usual affectionate greeting. "Have you been working very
hard?" she asked. "You look tired."

"No," she said, "I'm not tired. It isn't that. I just don't feel
good."

"What's the trouble?"

"Oh, I have to tell you something, mamma. It's so hard." She
paused, looking inquiringly at her mother, and then away.

"Why, what is it?" asked her mother nervously. So many things had
happened in the past that she was always on the alert for some new
calamity. "You haven't lost your place, have you?"

"No," replied Jennie, with an effort to maintain her mental poise,
"but I'm going to leave it."

"No!" exclaimed her mother. "Why?"

"I'm going to New York."

Her mother's eyes opened widely. "Why, when did you decide to do
that?" she inquired.

"To-day."

"You don't mean it!"

"Yes, I do, mamma. Listen. I've got something I want to tell you.
You know how poor we are. There isn't any way we can make things come
out right. I have found some one who wants to help us. He says he
loves me, and he