uiet, brown-eyed
girl who sat next her in geometry, not from preference, but because her
name came next on the class roll. This girl declined politely, on the
plea of another engagement.

Next day Miss Barnes brushed unseeingly past her in the hall of the
Science Building. The day after that they met at gym. Finally, when
almost a week had gone by without a sign from her, Helen inquired
timidly if she had found the note.

"Oh, are you Miss Adams?" inquired Miss Barnes, staring past her with a
weary air. "Thank you very much I'm sure, but I can't come," and she
walked off.

Any one but Helen Adams would have known that Caroline Barnes and
Eleanor Watson had the reputation of being the worst "snobs" in their
class, and that Miss Ashby, her neighbor in geometry, boarded with her
mother and never went anywhere without her. But Helen knew no college
gossip. She offered her invitation to two girls who had been in the
dancing-class, read hypocrisy into their hearty regrets that they were
going out of town for Sunday, and asked no one else to the play. If she
had been less shy and reserved she would have told Rachel or Betty all
about her ill-luck, have been laughed at and sympathized with, and then
have forgotten all about it. But being Helen Chase Adams, she brooded
over her trouble in secret, asked nobody's advice, and grew shyer and
more sensitive in consequence, but not a whit less determined to make a
place for herself in the college world.

She would have attached less significance to Caroline Barnes's rudeness,
had she known a little about the causes of Eleanor's headache. Eleanor
had gone down to Caroline's on the afternoon of the play, knocked
boldly, in spite of a "Don't disturb" sign posted on the door, and found
the pretty rooms in great confusion and Caroline wearily overseeing the
packing of her books and pictures.

Eleanor waited patiently until the men had gone off with three huge
boxes, and then insisted upon knowing what Caroline was doing.

"Going home," said Caroline sullenly.

"Why?" demanded Eleanor.

"Public reason--trouble with my eyes; real reason--haven't touched my
conditions yet and now I have been warned and told to tutor in three
classes. I can't possibly do it all."

"Why Caroline Barnes, do you mean you are sent home?"

Caroline nodded. "It amounts to that. I was advised to go home now, and
work off the entrance conditions and come again next fall. I thought
maybe you'd be taking th