"Splendid!" cried Bess. "Keep on and we'll have half the people in
Chicago watching out for Sallie and Celia. But Nan! You do have the most
marvelous way of meeting the most interesting people. Think of it!
Knowing that very famous actress. How did you do it, Nan?"
"Oh! something happened that caused us to speak," Nan said lightly. But she winced at the thought of the unhappy nature of that incident. She was glad that Bess Harley was too sleepy to probe any deeper into the matter.
CHAPTER XIX
HOW THEY LOOKED ON THE SCREEN
Nan did not forget Inez, the flower-girl, nor the fact that the runaways—Sallie Morton and Celia Snubbins—might still be traced through Mother Beasley's cheap lodging house.
Both Walter and Grace Mason had been interested, as well as amused, in the chum's account of their first adventure in Chicago. The brother and sister who lived so far away from the squalor of Mother Beasley's and who knew nothing of the toil and shifts of the flower-seller's existence, were deeply moved by the recital of what Nan and Bess had observed.
"That poor little thing!" Grace said. "On the street in all weathers to sell posies—and for a drunken woman. Isn't it awful? Something should be done about it. I'll tell father."
"And he'd report the case to the Society," said her brother, promptly.
"Father believes all charity should be done through organizations.
'Organized effort' is his hobby," added Walter, ruefully. "He says I lack
proper appreciation of its value."
"But if he told the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children about Inez, they would take her and put her in some institution," objected Nan.
"And put a uniform on her like a prisoner," cried Bess. "And make her obey rules like—like us boarding school girls. Oh, dear!"