never stop trying to work against you as long as you're both at
Wellington. She'll never let a chance slip to make trouble for you. I'd
advise you to be on your guard and the very next time she tries anything
hateful, go to Miss Rutledge with the whole story of the way she's
treated you ever since you came to college."

"I couldn't do that. Not for myself, I mean. If it were something
hateful she'd done to one of you girls, I could. I would have truly gone
to Miss Rutledge or even Prexy with that paper, because it was injurious
to Judy and Imp; not because of myself."

"Never mind, Jane. I am here to protect you," Judith reminded gaily.
"I'd fight for you as quickly as you'd fight for me. Just remember
that."

Judith began the little speech lightly. She ended with decided purpose.

"I know it, Judy."

Walking as she was beside her roommate, Jane slipped an affectionate
hand within Judith's arm.

"If Marian plays on the team with you girls, then look out," further
advised Alicia. "She'll do something to stir up trouble, you may depend
upon it. I know I'm croaking, but I can't help it."

"Wait till she makes the team," grinned Judith. "She may find herself
outplayed at the try-out. If she does, little Judy won't weep. No,
indeed. I'll give a grand celebration in honor of the joyful event."

"I, also, will shed few tears," Adrienne drily concurred. "Ah, but I
shall look forward to that most grand celebration! So at last this very
wicked Marian shall perhaps be the cause of some little pleasure to us."

Jane could not resist joining in the laugh that greeted this naive
assertion. She wished she could feel as little concern about the matter
as did Judith and Adrienne. Alicia's warning against Marian had taken
hold on her more strongly than she could wish.

To Jane it seemed almost in the nature of a prophesy of disaster. She
found herself inwardly hoping with her friends that Marian would not
make the team. Instantly she put it aside as unworthy of what she, Jane
Allen, desired to be. A good pioneer must forge ahead, surmounting one
by one each obstacle that rose in the path. Again it came to Jane in
that moment, out under the stars, that it could make no difference to
her what Marian Seaton did or did not do to her, so long as she, an
intrepid pioneer, steadily kept to work at clearing her own bit of
college land.

She had earlier expressed this conviction to Dorothy. Later it had been
swept away by bitter doub