"I overheard some of the things they said," declared Belle. "I think Sid was trying to get Mary and Ida to promise to go out for a ride with him that evening. Ida refused, and Mary--well, I didn't hear just what she said--but it wasn't no, I'm sure." "But they all three looked so--so guilty," went on Cora. "It was exactly as if they didn't want to be discovered." "Maybe Sid was ashamed to be seen asking Mary to go for a ride. You know, he's reported to be well off, and Mary--well, she's a dear, sweet little girl, but she works for a living, and you know what a fellow like Sid thinks of working girls." "I thought I heard Sid saying something about hiring a machine to take them out in," went on Belle. "Well, maybe we'll get a chance to ask Mary about it when we get to madam's," said Cora. "She'll be sent in to help us try on our things." They were soon in front of the shop with the big' glass front--the only real, big glass front in Chelton--and behind the plate was displayed a single hat--a creation--as Madam Julia described it. Madam Julia was very exclusive. The door-boy, a dapper little colored chap, in an exceedingly tight-fitting suit of blue, with innumerable brass buttons on it, in double rows in front, in triple rows behind, and in single rows on sleeves, opened the portal for the young ladies, bowing low as he did so. "I guess this is Mary coming now," said Cora in a low voice as she heard some one approaching from behind the silken draperies that separated part of the shop. But the three customers looked up in surprise when a strange young girl appeared through the parted curtains. "Miss Kimball," said Cora, announcing her own name, for she had an appointment. "Oh, yes," was the girl's answer. "I will tell madam." "Where is Mary?" whispered Bess. "That accounts for the sign I saw," spoke Cora, telling her chums of the notice that an apprentice was wanted. "Mary must have been discharged. Madam would never keep two--in Chelton." Madam Julia, as she was always called, entered with a swish of skirts and leaving a trail of French instructions behind her in the work-room--instructions to her employees as to the trimming on this "effect" and the reshaping of that "creation." "Ah, yes, Mees Kimball," she began. "I am all in readiness--but--pardon--zat Marie--she haf left me--in such hastiness--I am all at what you call ze ocean--how you express it?" With a pretty little motion of her hands she looked appealingly at Cora. "You mean all at sea, madam." "Ah, yes! At sea! How comprehensive! Ze sea is always troubled, and so am I. Zat Marie she left me so suddenness--I know not where are all my things--I depend so much on her--" "Has Miss Downs left?" Cora could not refrain from asking.