ow instinctively before I read it."

"Do you think her hair is naturally red," asked Nance, punching the dull
end of her orange stick into a sofa cushion with unusual force.

"I suppose lots of people ask the same question about mine," Molly
answered evasively.

"Never," Nance asserted hotly. "I don't know much about the subject but
I do know that no dyes have ever been invented that could imitate the
color of your hair."

"How do you know it, Nance, dear?"

"Well, because so many people would dye their hair that color. There
would be no more drab browns like mine, or rusty blacks or faded tans."

"But, Nance, your hair is lovely. It's smooth and glossy and fine and
thick. Has that girl been talking to you about your looks?"

"They both have," admitted Nance. "They've got me to thinking I'm plain
but would be greatly improved if I wore a rat and waved my bang and did
my hair in a bunch of curls in the back like Jessie."

"But Jessie's hair curls naturally," put in Molly.

"Yes, of course, and mine doesn't. It would be a fearful nuisance, but
one can't help listening to such talk when it concerns oneself. You know
how Judy does run away to things, and there is something convincing
about Adele's arguments."

"She's very bright," admitted Molly. "What do you think she wants me to
do, Nance? Something much worse than crimping."

"There is no telling. Probably lather your face with that horrible
white-wash stuff called 'Youthful Bloom,' Judy was telling us about."

"No, worse still. She says my face is too thin and that I am getting
lines from nose to mouth. She wants me to have it filled."

Nance gave a wild whoop of derision.

"Can't you see Judy Kean's head being stuffed with such nonsense until
it bursts?" she cried, breaking off suddenly as the door opened and Judy
herself appeared on the threshold.

"May I bring in a visitor?" she asked stiffly, feeling from the sudden
stillness that her own name had been under discussion. "Nobody likes to
have her name bandied back and forth even between intimate friends," she
thought with some indignation. But Judy's little fly-ups never lasted
long and when Molly called out hospitably: "Yes, indeed, delighted," and
Nance said: "Certainly, Judy," her sensitive feelings immediately
withdrew into the dark caverns of her mind.

"I've brought a _friend_ up to see our rooms," Judy went on, putting
special emphasis on friend.

Judy had introduced a new member to the Old