. "Her Highness is about to speak."

Miss Cora carried some cards in her hands, and as the girls gathered
about her she asked them to answer when she called out their names.

Although there were a hundred students in Three Towers Hall, there were
only half a dozen who, like pretty Rose Belser, had spent the summer at
the school.

The rest of the girls were almost all from North Bend and the other
surrounding towns, although a few had come from a distance.

When the girls had all reported present, Miss Cora gave them their seats
at the table and took her own place at the head of it.

At first the girls were not at all sure whether they were supposed to
talk or not, for the presence of thin-lipped Miss Cora at the head of
the table threw rather a damper on both their enthusiasm and their
appetites.

However, when Rose Belser leaned across several girls to say something
to Billie the rest of the girls took courage and a little murmur of
conversation traveled around the table.

The lunch was a satisfying one, and the girls, beginning to recover from
their excitement and being really hungry from the long train trip, ate
heartily.

But every once in a while, when the talk and laughter about the table
threatened to become too hilarious, the girls were conscious of Miss
Cora's voice reminding them that the table was the "place for
decorum--not for rioting."

Billie and her chums were half way down the table, a fact for which they
were very thankful. Placed only two or three seats away from Miss Cora,
at the head of the table, was Nellie Bane. Nellie seemed to have struck
up a sudden friendship with one of the half dozen girls who had spent
the summer at the school, and the two were evidently having an
interesting conversation.

Billie, catching Nellie's eye, telegraphed to her by means of the sign
language the wish to see her some time after lunch, and Nellie, in the
same language, agreed.

At last lunch was over and the girls reluctantly left the table. But as
they were about to leave the room Miss Cora called them together again,
saying that she had something important to say to them.

"You will each find a set of rules on your dresser," she said. "And
before you do anything else it will be well for each girl to become
thoroughly acquainted with them and the penalties for breaking them.
After to-day any departure from the rules will meet with the proper
punishment."

"Anybody would think we were three years o