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198 bruskly. "He's not dead. But how about Plornish?"

"Plornish?" returned Lil, puzzled.

"Pizotti, then, if you prefer his stage name."

"Is—isn't Pizotti his name?" demanded Lil, still struggling with her tears.

"His real name is Abel Plornish," said Laura, bluntly. She saw no use in "letting Lily down easy." "He has a wife and seven children living down on Governor Street, in a miserable tenement. He neglects them a good deal, I believe. But this time, if he had made what he expected to out of you By the way, Lil, what were you going to pay him?"

"II For putting me on the stage with his company?" she stammered.

"Is that the way he put it? Well, yes," said Laura. "It's the same thing. He was going to star you in your own play, was he?"

"Ye—es," sobbed Lily. "And now it's all spoiled! And I was going to take all the money I pawned grandmother's jewels for"

"Goodness me! How much?" snapped Laura.

"Five hundred dollars."

"Has he got the cash?"

"No," sobbed Lil.

"All right, then. No harm done. I went to