" he said, heartily.

"I do not want your _friendship_," she answered, coldly.

"O good Lord, you wretched baby!"--irritably.

"It is all right, Jerry. I see that it can never be, but I shall always
care for you deeply," she said with nobility.

When they came to the school Jerry left her with a deep sigh of relief.
She certainly was too much for him. He was no longer surprised that Max
and Wally avoided the problem.

* * * * *

There certainly was no fatted calf killed for the return of the prodigal
in Miss Vantine's school. At her reappearance an air of chastened
endurance settled upon all the teachers from Miss Vantine down to the
elocution teacher. But their fears were doomed to disappointment,
because Isabelle was for the time being absorbed in her unrequited love
affair.

She walked through her lessons like one in a trance; she devoted all her
leisure, and some of her study hours, to a series of daily letters to
the object of her passion. Most of these raptures were never to meet his
eye, but they furnished an outlet for the girl's over-full heart, and to
the psychologist they would have proved interesting. To her schoolmates
she was, as ever, an enigma.

"What is the matter with you, Isabelle? Trying to get one hundred in
deportment?" they teased her.

"I have larger things to think of, than deportment," she answered,
airily.

"She's in love again," scoffed Margie Hunter.

This was greeted with a deep sigh.

"Who is he, Isabelle?" they demanded.

"He is a great artist whose name is sacred to me."

"Do you know him?"

"Intimately."

"And does he care for you?"

"I cannot betray his confidence"--nobly.

"Is he handsome?"

"He is wonderful."

"Not so handsome as Shelley Hull, or Jack Barrymore," they protested.

"Oh, heaps handsomer!"

"Do have him come here. Couldn't we ask Miss Vantine to get him to
lecture on art?"

"He hasn't time. He goes from function to function. Many women love him,
he's a great social favourite," boasted Isabelle.

This distinction set her apart as never before. She went among them as
one baptized with greatness. When in the course of their daily walks
with a teacher, they encountered a personable young man, Isabelle's eyes
would never swerve in his direction. When there were midnight spreads,
Isabelle did not care for food, or she had her letter to write.

"Isabelle, will you marry him as soon as you graduate from