am."

"What'll I tell her, if I do?" demanded Patricia indignantly. "I
haven't any idea what you want to telegraph?"

"Tell her Bruce Haydon is here," said Judith. "Oh, there she goes! I
was afraid you couldn't get her. She's sitting down beside Miss Green
now, and we'll never be able to let her know."

"Bruce Haydon!" exclaimed Patricia, astonished. "Why, he's in Italy,
isn't he? Elinor had a letter yesterday----"

"He's here all the same," said Judith, interrupting her surprise. "And
he sent a message to Elinor, so she'd be prepared, I guess. But I
simply can't get to her now. She'll have to find it out for herself."

"What's Bruce doing here?" asked Patricia, as they resigned themselves
to the inevitable and prepared to await the event.

"He says he finished his studies, and has come back because he wanted
to keep an eye on you two art students," replied Judith. "He looks
awfully well. You ought to have seen them stare when he grabbed me up
and kissed me in the corridor just now."

Patricia gave a happy sigh. "It'll be good to have him around again,"
she said appreciatively. "I never knew how weak in the knees I was
until this very moment. Things are bound to go right with Bruce
hovering around. I hope Elinor sees him. She's feeling mighty shaky
right now, I fancy."

"Isn't it queer how wobbly one feels?" commented Judith uneasily.
"We've been crazy for the time to come, and now we feel like running
away. I know I'll simply _drop_ when Mr. Benton makes his speech."

"Nonsense," said Patricia stoutly, although her own knees were not too
steady. "Keep your eyes on Elinor, and remember how glad you are that
she's getting an official apology, after all the cheating and
nastiness--then you won't want to collapse."

"Sounds like you were prescribing for yourself," retorted Judith with a
flash of intuition. "You look just as----"

"Hush, he's coming," warned Patricia, turning pale in spite of her
brave words. "Listen, he has begun."

Her eyes sought the pale pure outline of Elinor's profile, caught
between the intervening faces, and held it during the brief explanatory
speech, wherein Mr. Benton paid his tribute to Elinor's generous
silence, and apologized in the name of the Board for the unjust
accusation. She saw the wave of color sweep over it at the
commendatory words, and the dark eyes fall under the shame of the
hinted treachery of the unnamed student whose face was in every one's