"

Yet in the silence which was a fitting tribute to the poem, suddenly the
entire audience broke into a ripple of laughter. From the far side of
the room a gentle snore had been Sally Ashton's sole expression of
appreciation.

Following the sound of the laughter, Sally sat up and began blinking her
soft golden brown eyes, looking for all the world like a sleepy kitten.

"I think you had far better give yourself up to justice and have someone
take care of you properly," she announced in a far-away voice. This was
the conclusion which Sally had just reached at the end of her
half-sleeping and half-waking dream of her runaway soldier.

She did not know that she was to make such an extraordinary remark
aloud, but fortunately no one had the faintest knowledge of her meaning.

Indeed, no one really heard her, as the girls were too amused over
Sally's characteristic habit of falling asleep on occasions when
conversation or entertainment bored her.

Immediately after the laughter, Sally, not understanding its cause,
nevertheless arose and began her journey to bed. She was annoyed but not
seriously, since in waking she had reached the conclusion she desired.
In the morning at dawn, before the other members of her household were
awake, she would make a second trip to the chateau.

She would carry provisions to the soldier and then advise him to leave
the neighborhood immediately. Unless he departed of his own free will,
taking his chances as he must, she then would be compelled to tell that
he was in hiding.

CHAPTER XI

THE RETURN

Before daylight Sally rose softly and began to dress, feeling extremely
irritated. She disliked getting up in the mornings and this scheme of
arising early was so annoying that it had kept her awake the greater
part of the night.

Besides she had but little hope of not arousing Alice. Once as she was
searching quietly on the floor for her shoes, Alice sat up, asking
severely:

"What on earth are you doing, Sally Ashton? If you are not ill, come on
back to bed. If you are ill, come back in any case and let me get
whatever it is you desire."

Sally murmured something vague and indeterminate about endeavoring to
discover a lost pillow and Alice fell comfortably asleep again, nor did
she awaken when Sally at last slipped out of the room and down stairs.

In case any one else heard her or called, she had made up her mind to
explain that she was seeing about some preparation for b