confidences she poured out so freely
to this stranger. Indeed Helen was surprised herself at the ease with
which she spoke and the dramatic quality that she managed to put into
her brief account of the awkward, misfit, unhappy freshman.

Miss Carter listened at first apathetically, then with growing interest.

"Thank you," she said gravely, when Helen had finished. "I thought I was
the only one who felt so."

"Oh, no, you aren't," said Helen brightly. "There are lots of others, I
guess."

"No one with a thing like this," said the girl, with a swift, passionate
gesture toward her scar.

"Don't," said Helen gently. "Please don't think about it. No one else
does, I'm sure."

"I got it just before I came here," went on the girl, speaking almost
fiercely. "It came in a horrible way, but it's horrible just of itself.
I entered Harding because I thought the college life--the girls and the
good times and the work--would help me to forget it--or to get used to
being so ugly."

Helen considered a moment in silence. "I guess we're even more alike
than I thought," she said at last. "We both expected college to do it
all for us, while we--just sat. But I can tell you--do you play
basket-ball? Anyhow you've seen it played. Well, you've got to keep your
eye on the ball, and then you've got to jump--hard. Have you noticed
that?"

Miss Carter laughed happily at Helen's whimsical comparison. "No," she
said, "I've never been much interested in basket-ball. I'm afraid I've
'just sat' or jumped the wrong way."

Helen considered again, her small face wrinkled with the intensity of
her thought. "You mean you've jumped away from the very things you were
trying to get hold of," she said. "You've expected things to come to
you. They won't. You've got to do your part. You've got to jump very
often, and as if you meant it."

The girl nodded. "I see."

"You can do one thing right away," said Helen briskly, rising and
buttoning her coat. "Do you know Jane Drew? Well, she's an awfully
clever senior and an editor. She's going to have dinner with me at
Cuyler's, and I'd like you to come too. You see one of the things you
have jumped into already is being a star contributor to the 'Argus,' and
we always want to meet our star contributors."

Miss Carter hesitated.

"Never mind your waist," Helen urged tactfully. "It looks perfectly
fresh to me, but you can keep your coat on if you'd rather."

"All right, I'll come," said Miss Carter br