ed to be
popular, to be admired and courted for her talents: it was the
_secret_ society that would prevent this. This, Jenny Barton
understood; and in the long debate that followed she met it well.

There should be a public occasion now and then. Did not the Harvard
societies give splendid spreads, and have an abundance of good times
generally?

The society was established, and its name, after a long and warm
debate, chosen: "The Demosthenic Club." "For we are going to debate,
you know; train for lecturers, public readers, ministers, actresses,
lawyers, and whatever needs public speaking," said President Jenny.
Vice-President Kate Underwood gave her head an expressive toss, and,
if it hadn't been too dark to see her smile, there might have been
seen something more than the toss; for while they talked, the long
twilight had faded away, the little ripples of the lake by whose side
they were sitting had gone to sleep on its quiet bosom. The air was
full of the chirrup of innumerable insects; two frogs, creeping up
from the water, adding a sonorous bass, and the long, slender
pine-leaves chimed into this evening lullaby with their sad, sweet,
AEolian notes.

But little of all of this did this Demosthenic Club notice as, coming
out at length from the darkness of the grove, they saw the sky full of
stars, the academy windows blazing with gas-light, and knew study
hours had been begun.

Not to be in their rooms punctually at that hour was an infringement
upon the "regulations" not easily excused, and to begin the formation
of their society by incurring the displeasure of their teachers did
not promise well for their future.

"Take off your boots," whispered Mamie Smythe, as they stood
hesitating at the door. In a moment every pair of boots was in the
girls' hands, and they were creeping softly through the empty
corridors toward their respective rooms. As fate would have it, the
only one who reached her room was Lilly White. To be sure, Fraeulein
Sausmann, the German teacher, heard steps in her corridor, and,
opening her door a crack, peeped out. When she saw Lilly White
creeping along on the toes of her great feet, her boots, like two
boats, held one in each hand, she only smiled, and said to herself,
"Oh, Fraeulein White! She matters not. She studies no times at all,"
and shut her door.

All the others were taken in the very act; and their shoeless feet,
their confession of a guilty conscience, were reported to Miss