Lord Bromley raised her up. "Never mind, Patty. The audience doesn't know the difference; and, anyway, it was all for the best. My mustache wouldn't have stayed on more than two minutes longer." They could hear some one shouting in the front, "What's the matter with Georgie Merriles?" and a hundred voices replied, "She's all right!" "Who's all right?" "G-e-o-r-g-i-e M-e-r-r-i-l-e-s." "What's the matter with the cast?" "They're all right!" The stage-door burst open and a crowd of congratulatory friends burst in and gathered around the disheveled actors and committee. "It's the best senior play since we've been in college." "The freshmen are simply crazy over it." "Lord Bromley, your room will be full of flowers for a month." "Patty," called the head usher, over the heads of the others, "let me congratulate you. I was in the very back of the room, and never heard a thing but your crash. It sounded _fine_!" "Patty," demanded Georgie, "what in the world were you doing?" "I was counting the stars," said the contrite Patty, "and then I remembered too late, and I turned around suddenly, and it fell off. I am terribly sorry." "Never mind," laughed Georgie; "since it turned out well, I'll forgive you. All the cast and committee," she said, raising her voice, "come up to my room for food. I'm sorry I can't invite you all," she added to the girls crowded in the doorway, "but I live in a single." XIV The Mystery of the Shadowed Sophomore "Oh, I say, Bonnie--Bonnie Connaught! Priscilla! Wait a minute," called a girl from across the links, as the two were strolling homeward one afternoon, dragging their caddie-bags behind them. They turned and waited while Bonnie's sophomore cousin, Mildred Connaught, dashed up. She grasped them excitedly, and at the same time glanced over her shoulder with the air of a criminal who is being tracked. "I want to tell you something," she panted. "Come in here where no one will see us"; and she dived into a clump of pine-trees growing by the path. Priscilla and Bonnie followed more leisurely, and dropped down on the soft needles with an air of amused tolerance. "Well, Mildred, what's the matter?" Bonnie inquired mildly. The sophomore lowered her voice to an impressive whisper, although there was not a person within a hundred yards. "I am being _followed_," she said solemnly. "Followed!" exclaimed Bonnie, in amazement. "Are you crazy, child? You act like a boy who's been reading dime novels."