iolets which she wore pinned to her shabby, old-fashioned brown
jacket.

Meanwhile Betty, propped up among her pillows, was trying to answer
Nan's last letter.

"You seem to be interested in so many other people's affairs," Nan had
written, "that you haven't any time for your own. Don't make the mistake
of being a hanger-on."

"You see, Nan," wrote Betty, "I am at last a heroine, an interesting
invalid, with scars, and five bouquets of flowers on my table. I am
sorry that I don't amount to more usually. The trouble is that the other
people here are so clever or so something-or-other that I can't help
being more interested in them. I'm afraid I am only an average girl, but
I do seem to have a lot of friends and Miss Ferris, whom you are always
admiring, has asked me to five o'clock tea. Perhaps, some day----"

Writing with one's left hand was too laborious, so Betty put the letter
in a pigeon-hole of her desk to be finished later. As she slipped the
sheets in, Miss Ferris's note dropped out. "I wonder if I shall ever
want to ask her anything," thought Betty, as she put it carefully away
in the small drawer of her desk that held her dearest treasures.

CHAPTER XII

A TRIUMPH FOR DEMOCRACY

By Wednesday Betty was well enough to go to classes, though she felt
very conspicuous with her scratched face and her wrist in a sling. And
so when early Wednesday afternoon Eleanor pounced on her and Katherine
and demanded why they were not starting to class-meeting, she replied
that she at least was not going.

"Nor I," said Katherine decidedly. "It's sure to be stupid."

"I'm sorry," said Eleanor. "We may need you badly; every one is so busy
this week. Perhaps you'll change your minds before two-thirty, and if
you do, please bring all the other girls that you can along. You know
the notice was marked important."

"Evidently all arranged beforehand," sniffed Katherine, as Eleanor
departed, explaining that she had promised to be on hand early, ready to
drum up a quorum if necessary.

Betty looked out at the clear winter sunshine. "I wanted a little walk,"
she said. "Let's go. If it's long and stupid we can leave; and we ought
to be loyal to our class."

"All right," agreed Katherine. "I'll go if you will. I should rather
like to see what they have on hand this time."

"They" meant the Hill-School contingent, who from the initial meeting
had continued to run the affairs of the class of 19--. Some of the girls
we