s as
they danced the last waltz together. "And I think their rooms are
prettier than ours, if these are fair samples. But they can't have any
better time at college than we do."

"We certainly couldn't get on at all without you girls across the
river," Mr. Parsons was saying gallantly, when the music stopped and
Eleanor, followed by Mr. West, hurried up to Betty.

"Excuse me one moment, Mr. Parsons," she said, as she drew Betty aside.
"I've been trying to get at you for ever so long," she went on. "I'm in
a dreadful fix. You know I told you I hadn't intended to come here
to-day, but I didn't tell you the reason why. The reason was that to-day
was the time set for my math. exam, with Miss Mansfield. I tried to get
her to change it, but I couldn't, so finally I telephoned her that I was
ill. Some one else answered the 'phone for her, saying that she was
engaged and, Betty--I'm sure it was Miss Hale."

Betty looked at her in blank amazement. "You said you were ill and then
came here!" she began. "Oh, Eleanor, how could you! But what makes you
think that Miss Hale knows?"

"I'm sure I recognized her voice when she asked you for the fan, and
then haven't you noticed her distant manner?" said Eleanor gloomily.
"Are they friends, do you know?"

"They live in the same house."

"Then that settles it. You seem to be very chummy with Miss Hale, Betty.
You couldn't reconcile it with your tender conscience to say a good word
for me, I suppose?"

"I--why, what could I say after that dreadful message?" Then she
brightened suddenly. "Why, Eleanor, I did. We talked about you all the
way over here. Ethel asked questions and I answered them. I told her a
lot of nice things," added Betty reassuringly, "though of course I
couldn't imagine why she wanted to know. What luck that you hadn't told
me sooner!"

Eleanor stared at her blankly. "I suppose," she said at last, "that it
will serve me right if Miss Hale tells Miss Mansfield that I was here,
and Miss Mansfield refuses me another examination; but do you think she
will?"

Betty glanced at Ethel. She was standing at the other end of the room,
talking to two Winsted men, and she looked so young and pretty and so
like one of the girls herself that Betty said impulsively, "She
couldn't!" Then she remembered how different Ethel had seemed on the
train, and that the girls in her classes stood very much in awe of her.
"I don't know," she said slowly. "She just hates any sort of cheati