"You needn't be scared," she cried, observing his confusion. "This is my regular uniform. I'm starting a new style for chambermaids. Did it paralyse you to find me here?" "I must confess to a moment of indecision," he said, smiling. "Followed by a moment of uneasiness," she added, slapping the bolster. "You didn't know what to think, now did you?" "I couldn't believe my eyes." She abandoned her easy, careless manner. A look of mortification came into her eyes as she straightened up and faced him. Her voice was a trifle husky when she spoke again, after a moment's pause. "You see, Mr. Barnes, these are the only duds I have with me. It wasn't necessary to put on this hat, of course, but I did it simply to make the character complete. I might just as well make beds and clean washstands in a picture hat as in a low-necked gown, so here I am." She was a tall, pleasant-faced girl of twenty-three or four, not unlike her father in many respects. Her features were rather heavy, her mouth large but comely, her eyes dark and lustrous behind heavy lashes. As she now appeared before Barnes, she was the typical stage society woman: in other words, utterly commonplace. In a drawing-room she would have been as conspicuously out of place as she was in her present occupation. "I am very sorry," he said lamely. "I have heard something of your misfortunes from your father and--the others. It's--it's really hard luck." "I call it rather good luck to have got away with the only dress in the lot that cost more than tuppence," she said, smiling again. "Lord knows what would have happened to me if they had dropped down on us at the end of the first act. I was the beggar's daughter, you see,--absolutely in rags." "You might have got away in your ordinary street clothes, however," he said; "which would have been pleasanter, I dare say." "I dare say," she agreed brightly. "Glad to have met you. I think you'll find everything NEARLY all right. Good night, sir." She smiled brightly, unaffectedly, as she turned toward the open door. There was something forelorn about her, after all, and his heart was touched. "Better luck, Miss Thackeray. Every cloud has its silver lining."