"I don't know," she thought to herself, "but I'm going to like Connie
better than Rose."

A little while later Rose suggested that she and Connie show the girls
about the Hall, to which the newcomers eagerly agreed.

"I wonder," said Vi suddenly, as they were about to leave the room,
"what has become of Amanda and Eliza Dilks. They haven't been up here
since lunch."

"Well, why should we care?" sang out Billie happily. "I only hope they
stay away."

"Probably up to some mean tricks," said Laura gloomily.

Connie and Rose were eager to hear more of Eliza and her friend, but the
chums could not be made to tell tales. The girls would have to find out
what Amanda was for themselves.

"Only," thought Billie to herself, as they ran down the stairs, "I would
like to know where those two sneaks are and why they didn't come back to
the dormitory. I know they'll _try_ to spoil all our fun, even if they
can't _do_ it."

CHAPTER X

LAKE MOLATA

How the girls did enjoy the rest of that afternoon! Connie and Rose
showed them the classrooms and lecture rooms, told them little stories
about the different teachers and recounted funny incidents of school
life that made the girls bubble with laughter.

All the rooms were high-ceilinged, many-windowed and cheerful, but it
was the lecture hall and gymnasium that the girls thought the most
attractive of all.

The lecture room was on the third floor and was arranged in the shape of
a Roman circus, the seats in tiers all around the room with the lecture
platform in the center.

"My, I won't even mind being lectured to in a room like this," said Vi,
in an awed little voice. "Do you have many lectures?"

"Too many," drawled Rose, sinking down in one of the seats and spreading
out her ruffled dress carefully. The girls had been too excited to
notice the dress before, but now they saw it was much more elaborate
than any they had brought with them, except one or two apiece for party
wear.

"I wonder if all the girls dress like that for every day," thought
Billie in a sort of panic, looking down at the pretty little brown cloth
dress she had thought so wonderful at home. She wondered if Vi and Laura
felt the same way.

A little later they wandered downstairs to the gymnasium, and then all
thought of clothes was put in the background.

Around the gymnasium were all sorts of swinging ladders and standing
ladders. There were punching bags and medicine balls; in fact,