t to determine.

CHAPTER IV

Dorothy makes a Friend

Dorothy set off for school on the morning after the election in a very
sober frame of mind. Aunt Barbara had made her acquainted with most of
the facts mentioned in our last chapter, and she now thoroughly
understood her own position. To a girl of her proud temperament the news
had indeed come as a great humiliation. Instead of bringing a copy of
her pedigree to convince Agnes Lowe that she was one of the Sherbournes
of Devonshire, she would now be obliged to ignore the subject. She did
not expect it would be mentioned openly again, but there might be hints
or allusions, and the mere fact that the girls at school should know was
sufficiently mortifying.

"Agnes was perfectly right," she thought bitterly. "I am a waif, a
nobody, with no relations, and no place of my own in the world. I
suppose I am exactly what she called me--a charity child! I wonder how
she heard the story? But it really does not matter who told her; the
secret has leaked out somehow, and no doubt it will soon be bruited all
over the College. It was time I knew about it myself; but oh dear, how
different I feel since yesterday!"

Thus Dorothy mused, all unconscious that the shuttle of Fate was already
busy casting fresh threads into the web of her life, and that the next
few minutes would bring her a meeting with one whose fortunes were
closely interwoven with her own, and whose future friendship would lead
to strange and most unexpected issues. The train had reached Latchworth,
where a number of passengers were waiting on the platform. The door of
Dorothy's compartment was flung open, and a girl of about her own age
entered, wearing the well-known Avondale ribbon and badge on her straw
hat. Dorothy remembered noticing her among the new members who had been
placed yesterday in the Upper Fourth, though she had had no opportunity
of speaking to her, and had not even learnt her name. A pretty,
fair-haired lady was seeing her off, and turned to Dorothy with an air
of relief.

"You are going to the College?" she asked pleasantly. "Oh, I am so glad!
Then Alison will have somebody to travel with. Will you be good-natured,
and look after her a little at school? She knows nobody yet."

"I'll do my best," murmured Dorothy.

[Illustration: THE NEW GIRL]

"It will be a real kindness. It is rather an ordeal to be a complete
stranger among so many new schoolfellows. Birdie, you must be sure to