Page:Girls of Central High on the Stage.djvu/161

Rh "Look there!" gasped Jess, seizing her chum's arm. "Isn't that the Pendletons' sleigh?"

"Of course it is. With the big plumes and the pair of dappled grays? And that stiff and starched coachman driving? No mistake," admitted Laura.

"Who's in the sleigh with Lil?" demanded Jess.

"As I live!" cried her chum, in a somewhat horrified tone. "It—it is that Pizotti—that man!"

"Can you beat her?" said Jess, shaking her head.

"How foolish!" added Laura. "He is not a good man. He has known her so short a time—and to go sleigh-riding with her. Lil will be talked about, sure enough."

"Well, I don't know as we need to worry about her," said Jess, shrugging her shoulders.

But Laura Belding could not put her schoolmate's indiscreet actions out of her mind so easily. She wondered if Mrs. Pendleton knew of Lily's familiarity with the foreign-looking Pizotti. The man might know his business as a stage director; but he certainly was neither of the age, nor the condition in life, to be cultivated as a friend by any young girl.

Lily Pendleton was so foolishly romantic, and