t stray kitten to the biological
laboratory. She declared it would be happier if dead."

"And it wasn't her kitten either," I contributed. "Robbie found it up a
tree. It is necessary to weigh every little point in a scientific study
like this."

"Don't you see, girls, that Mary Winchester does not come from good
stock," began Lila, "of course she isn't a lady. Her attitude toward the
rights of others is certain proof that her family has a defective moral
sense. Perhaps her brother----"

"Oh, let's follow out the logical deductions," cried Berta. "That course
in logic is the most fascinating in the whole curriculum. See--if a girl
lacks moral judgment, she either inherits or acquires the defect. If she
inherits it, her father doubtless was dishonest. Maybe he speculated and
embezzled or gambled or something. If she acquired it through
environment, her brother must have suffered likewise as they were
presumably brought up together. So perhaps Mary Winchester's brother was
expelled from college for kleptomania."

"Then," said Lila triumphantly, "how can we possibly put her into even
the lowest of our classes in manners?"

"Hi, there!" I started to scream before the breath was knocked out of me
by colliding with some girls who had been skating in front of us. One of
them had caught her skate in a crack, and we were so intent on our
conversation that we bumped into them, and all tumbled in a heap. Nobody
was hurt. That is, nobody was hurt physically. We picked ourselves up and
went on skating as before. It was not until days later that we discovered
what had been hurt then. It was Mary Winchester's reputation. Those girls
in front had overheard part of our remarks. And they thought that we were
talking about real facts instead of just analyzing character.

It was exactly like a game of slander, only worse. The rumor that Mary
Winchester's father was a gambler and that her brother had been expelled
from college for stealing spread and grew like fire. You know, as I said
before, she was a queer girl--so queer in countless small ways that she
was conspicuous. Even freshmen who did not know her name had wondered
about the tall, wild-looking girl who had a habit of tearing alone over
the country roads as if trying to get away from herself. Naturally when
such a report as this one of ours reached them, they adopted it as a
satisfactory explanation. They also, so to speak, promulgated it.

The first we knew of the rumor was