he seemed a very tall child, rather than the small
girl she was.

"I like your manner of speaking of my specialty, Cousin Julia," she
remarked. "Pray tell me why you want to hear it again, if you have
such scant respect for it?"

Miss Pritchard smiled. "If you must know, child, I want to listen more
critically this time. I'm quite sure I must have praised it far above
its deserts. And now that I understand the situation I ought to be a
better judge."

Despite her lightness of tone, Miss Pritchard was really desirous of
applying the test. Less than a fortnight after the girl's arrival, she
had learned of Elsie's desire to be an actress. The knowledge came
like a blow, it must be confessed. Broad as she was, she couldn't help
regretting that the girl's desires--and apparently her talent--seemed
to lie in the direction of the stage. Though she had declared she had
no patience with Pritchard notions and pretensions, she couldn't help
feeling that it was hardly decorous for the last of the Pritchards to
become an actress. Moreover, she feared that Elsie's capability did
not point to what is called the legitimate drama; it looked from the
first as if she would make straight for vaudeville and, perhaps, never
go further. After her training she might fill a soubrette's part
acceptably for a few years, but Miss Pritchard sighed when she tried to
look beyond that. To her it seemed like a limited outlook with a
closed door blocking the way at a point long before the age when one's
career should have reached the apex.

But Elsie's heart was set on it, and Miss Pritchard, despite her
misgivings, was full of sympathy and entered cordially into plans and
ways and means. Her newspaper work had given her friends among
critics, managers, and various theatrical people, and she helped Elsie
select a school wherein to begin her studies. That accomplished, Elsie
reluctantly agreed to accompany Miss Pritchard to the shore to spend
her six weeks' vacation.

"What I cannot understand," said Miss Pritchard at this time, repeating
very much what she had said before, "is, how you ever did it--how you
could possibly get any such idea into your head with your bringing-up.
For the life of me, I can't imagine your family countenancing any such
thing!"

"They didn't take to the idea with any enthusiasm," Elsie replied truly.

"You certainly are the strangest Pritchard ever. You're less Pritchard
than I, and that's saying a great