st needed her nerve she was breaking down completely.

"I always have hated that Billy Webster," she sobbed, "from the first
moment I saw him. What possible reason or right can he have to come
spying on me in this fashion? If he tells mother what I am doing now
and does not give me a chance to confess, she will never forgive me.
Neither will Mollie nor Betty nor any of the people I care about. Rose
and Miss McMurtry will never speak to me. I shall be turned out of our
Camp Fire Club. Of course I know I deserve it. But that Billy Webster
should be the person to bring about my punishment is too much!
Besides, I can't give up my part now. Surely, Esther, you can see
that. Acting a week longer won't hurt me any more and----"

"I think we had better see Mr. Webster, anyhow, dear," Esther insisted
quietly. "Perhaps we can persuade him not to tell, or else to give you
the first opportunity."

Hastily Polly dried her eyes. She looked very white and frail as they
went out of the room together.

In a secluded corner not far from the stage door they found Billy
Webster waiting for them. His face was pale under his country tan.
His blue eyes, that sometimes were charmingly humorous, showed no sign
of humor now. If ever there was so youthful a figure of a stern and
upright judge, he might well have stood for the model.

Polly struggled bravely to maintain her dignity.

"What is your decision, Miss O'Neill?" he inquired, without wasting any
time by an enforced greeting. "I presume Miss Crippen has told you
what I have made up my mind to do."

Amiability was one of Esther's dominant traits of character; yet she
would have liked to shake Billy Webster until his teeth chattered or
suppress him in almost any way. After all, what right had he to take
this lofty tone with Polly? He was not a member of her family, not
even her friend. Just because he had known all of them in their Camp
Fire days in the woods and was devoted to Mrs. Wharton and to Mollie
was not a sufficient excuse.

Therefore Polly's unexpected meekness of manner and tone was the more
surprising--and dangerous.

"How did you happen to come to New York and to the theater, Billy?" she
queried, ignoring his use of the "Miss." Frequently in times past they
had called each other by their first names, when good feeling happened
to be existing between them.

Instantly Billy looked a little more on the defensive. "I--I had to
come to New York on busine