ers of school routine with which she (Ruth) was unacquainted. The
questions were politely answered, but her sensitive neighbour seemed
either too proud or too shy to respond to her friendly advances.

"Ruth Arnold," exclaimed Julia in the cloak-room at the close of the
day, when Mabel Stanley had dressed quickly in silence and taken her
departure with only a half-whispered "Good-afternoon" to Ruth, "did you
know that the girl you have been sitting next all day is the very one we
were talking about yesterday?"

"Yes, I imagined so," was the quiet reply.

"But I thought you knew that we had all determined to cut her if she
came back, and not to say one word more to her than we were really
obliged," continued Julia.

"Why?" asked Ruth sharply.

"Because she has no business here, because she degrades the school. A
bankrupt's daughter ought not to come here," said Julia haughtily, "and
I hope you will not associate with her."

Ruth's eyes were flashing and her cheeks crimson as she retorted
angrily, "That is no reason why I should not be friendly with her; and
indeed, Julia, I do not intend to ask you whom I am to choose for my
friends."

"Do as you like, and go your own way," said Julia with a scornful laugh.
"Mabel must be destitute of all fine feeling, but perhaps you have a
fancy for people of that sort. If any one belonging to me had ever been
a bankrupt, I should never show my face in the town again."

She left the house a moment later with one or two of her chosen friends,
and Ruth was slowly walking home alone, trying to swallow her
indignation, and letting the cool breeze fan her hot cheeks, when Ethel
Thompson overtook her.

"I really think," she began, "that Julia has been terribly down on
Mabel, and I am glad that you took her part and would not give in. Our
coolness to her to-day was all Julia's doing, and I know that she is
wild with you, for she cannot bear to be crossed. But Mabel has not done
anything; and after all, I don't see why we should cut her to please
Julia, who wants to dictate to every one."

Ruth made an indifferent reply, and hastened to change the subject, for
she did not care to discuss her cousin's shortcomings with one whom she
knew but slightly.

Very few words passed between the cousins upon their return home that
evening; but on their way to school the next morning Julia asked
scornfully, "Do you still intend to cultivate your aristocratic
acquaintance, Ruth?"

"I shall do