t that I _must_ go home. I couldn't tell why,--only
I felt I must come back to the house at once. So I did,--and everything
seemed to be all right. I decided I had been foolishly nervous about
it,--and I took Fleurette down on the porch for a little while.

"Then that man came and demanded her! I was alone, except for
Janet,--who is no good in an emergency,--and Mr. Merritt was very
determined. If I hadn't thought of the phonograph I don't know what I
should have done, for that man is quite capable of taking Baby away from
my arms by main force. But I happened to think I could fool him,--as I
couldn't combat him,--so I put on the crying record to make him think we
were still in the library,--and I scooted over to Gales' with the baby
as fast as I could run. Then I came back--"

"Weren't you afraid of him?" asked Patty, shuddering at the thought of
Azalea at the mercy of the infuriated man.

"No; I know him, and he isn't a brute or a ruffian. He was just
bent on getting Fleurette for that picture,--it would take only
a few minutes,--and I was just as bent that he shouldn't.

"So, when he found I had outwitted him, he accepted the situation,--why,
he even wanted to take _my_ picture in my angry mood! He is a man who
thinks of nothing but a good pose for his pictures."

"He seemed a decent chap," Farnsworth said, "but I was so angry, I just
fired him, for I feared otherwise I'd lose control of my own temper and
give him his just deserts!"

"He'll never come again," observed Van Reypen, "I saw you, Bill, when
you invited him to leave! I'm no craven, but I shouldn't care to return
to any one who had looked at me like that!"

"I _was_ a bit positive," laughed Farnsworth. "But, Azalea, I must admit
I'm rather bowled over by this idea of you in the moving pictures! It--it
isn't done much in our crowd, you know."

"I know it,--and I'm never going to do it again! I've had enough! I
wanted to make it my career,--but," she hesitated, "that was before I
knew you--you nice people. I--I never knew _really_ nice people
before,--my Western friends are--are different. But I want to be like
you," her troubled glance took in Patty and Bill and then drifted to the
others; and her face was wistful and only lighted up as she looked at
Van Reypen. He smiled encouragingly at her, and she continued.

"I'm quite ready to give up all connection with the Bixby people and
I'll promise never to go near them again,--even if they try to get me