her idol's everlasting displeasure by intruding at such a time.
But the next instant Betty's face cleared, and the brown eyes smiled in
the way that always made her friends wherever she went.

"What is it, Dora?" she asked, kindly. Dora, who could only stammer an
embarrassed reply, held out the letter. Then she stood with toes turned
in, and both hands fumbling nervously with her belt ribbon, while Betty
broke the seal.

"I--I hope it isn't bad news," she managed to say at last. "I--I'd hate
to bring _you_ bad news."

Betty looked up with a smile which brought Dora's heart into her throat.
"Thank you, dear," she answered, cordially. Then, as her eye travelled
farther down the page, she gave a cry of pleasure.

"Oh, it is perfectly lovely news, Dora. It's the most beautiful surprise
for Lloyd's birthday that ever was. She's not to know till to-morrow.
It's too good a secret to keep to myself, so I'll share it with you in a
minute if you'll swear not to tell till to-morrow."

Scarcely believing that she heard aright, Dora dropped down on the
grass, regardless of the fact that her roommate and two other girls were
waiting on the upper terrace for her to join them. They were going to
Mammy Easter's cabin to have their fortunes told. Feeling that this was
the best fortune that had befallen her since her arrival at Warwick
Hall, and sure that Mammy Easter could foretell no greater honor than
she was already enjoying, she signalled wildly for them to go on without
her.

At first they did not understand her frantic gestures for them to go on,
and stood beckoning, till she turned her back on them. Then they moved
away reluctantly and in great disgust at her abandoning them. When a
glance over her shoulder assured her that she was rid of them, she
settled down with a blissful sigh. What greater honor could she have
than to be chosen as the confidante of the most brilliant pupil ever
enrolled at Warwick Hall? At least it was reported that that was the
faculty's opinion of her. Dora's roommate, Cornie Dean, had chosen Lloyd
Sherman as the shrine of her young affections, and it was from Cornie
that Dora had learned the personal history of her literary idol. She
knew that Lloyd Sherman's mother was Betty's godmother, and that the two
girls lived together as sisters in a beautiful old home in Kentucky
called "The Locusts." She had seen the photograph of the place hanging
in Betty's room, and had heard scraps of information about