at her. "What do you mean, Mona?"

"What I say; are you _sure_?"

"Funny thing to ask. Well,--I am and--I'm not."

"Now, what do _you_ mean?"

"I'll tell you." And then he told her how queer he thought it that
Azalea had had no letters from her father since her arrival,--nor any
letters at all from Horner's Corners.

"And she's so sly about it," he wound up; "why once she wrote a letter
to herself, and pretended it was from her father!"

"I can't make it out," Mona mused. "If her father were dead, she'd have
no reason to conceal the fact. Nor if he had remarried. And if he has
done anything disgraceful--maybe that's it, Bill! Maybe he's in jail!"

"I've thought of that, Mona, and, of course, it's a possibility. That
would explain her not getting letters, and her unwillingness to tell
the reason. But,--somehow, it isn't very plausible. Why shouldn't she
confide in me? I've begged her to,--and no matter what Uncle Thorpe may
have done, it's no real reflection on Azalea."

"No; but now _I've_ something to tell you about the girl."

Mona gave him a full account of the moving-picture play that she and
Patty had visited, and told him, too, of Patty's distress over the
pictures of Fleurette.

Farnsworth was greatly amazed, but, like Mona, he knew Patty could not
be mistaken as to the identity of Fleurette.

"And I just thought," Mona went on, "that I'd tell you before Patty
did,--for,--oh, well, this is my real reason,--Patty is so wrought up
and so wild over the Fleurette matter that she can't judge Azalea
fairly,--and I don't want to have injustice done to her at this stage of
the game. For, Bill, Azalea has real talent,--real dramatic genius, _I_
think, and if there's no reason against it,--except conventional
ones,--I think she ought to be allowed to become a motion-picture
actress. She's bound to make good,--she has the right sort of a face for
the screen,--beautiful, mobile, expressive, and really, a speaking
countenance. Why, she'd make fame and fortune, I'm positive."

"Oh, Mona! what utter rubbish! One of _our_ people in the 'movies'!
Impossible!"

"I knew you'd say that! And I know Patty will say--oh, good Heavens, I
don't know _what_ Patty will say! But I do know this; she would have
been sensible and would have felt just as I do about it, if it hadn't
been for the Fleurette part of it. Before the baby appeared on the
screen Patty was really delighted with Azalea. She was enthusiastic
about her talen