urried forth,
feeling that anything was better than remaining longer indoors.

All of the Sunrise Hill Camp Fire girls were in the habit of taking
frequent walks to their forsaken log cabin. And as Betty wished to be
alone and especially needed the strength and consolation that its happy
memories could give her, probably she had gone out there. Under most
circumstances Polly would have respected her friend's desire for
solitude, but Betty must already have been at the cabin for some time
by herself and the dusk would soon come down upon her and she would be
hurt and lonely, with all her familiar world fallen about her feet.

No one else must learn of her pilgrimage, since Betty might forgive her
presence and yet could not rally to meet the astonishment and sympathy
of any other of her friends. So Polly told several impatient fibs to
the persons who insisted upon learning where she intended going, before
she was able to get outside of Woodford and into the blessed solitude
of the country lanes.

The air was colder by this time and light flurries of snow kept
blinding her eyes as she hurried along. However, she had not so
forgotten her training in woodcraft as not to recognize signs of
Betty's having preceded her along almost the same route; for here and
there, where the earth had thawed in the midday warmth, there were
impressions of the Princess' shoes. And she even picked up a small
crushed handkerchief which had been dropped by the way.

Therefore in spite of her depression over Mrs. Ashton's information,
Polly was beginning to get a kind of hold upon herself. For it was her
place, if she possibly could manage it, to persuade Betty that, after
all, life was not so utterly changed by yesterday's discovery. If Mrs.
Ashton and Dick were not her own mother and brother, they themselves
knew no difference. And there would be no change in her friends'
affections. Then, she had gained Esther as a sister, Esther who was so
big in her nature, so unselfish and fine. No wonder she had always
seemed to care for Betty with a devotion no one of them could explain.
And how hard it must have been loving her as she did to have made no
claim upon her.

"Hello, Miss Polly," an unexpected voice cried out, and to Polly's
utter vexation she beheld Billy Webster coming toward her from the path
that led through his father's woods.

She bowed coldly, hoping that her coldness might be her salvation,
since she did not wish to wa