ll make the other girls be nice too. To think of going up there and
meeting all those darling boys. Oh please tell me all about it! The
girls will be just crazy when I tell them. Which of these fellows will
be there?"

Helen had rushed over to Polly's dresser upon which in pretty silver
frames were photographs of Ralph, Happy and Wheedles. On Peggy's dresser
Shorty and Durand looked from their frames straight into her eyes, while
several others not yet framed looked down from the top of the bookshelf.
Silly little Helen was in an ecstasy. Her mamma had never believed in
companions of the opposite sex for her "sweet little daughter" but had
kept her in a figurative preserve jar which bore the label "you may look
but you must not touch." Mamma's instructions to Mrs. Vincent upon
placing Helen in the school had been an absolute ban upon any masculine
visitors, or visits upon Helen's part where such undesirable, though
often unavoidable, members of society might congregate. "She is so very
innocent and unsophisticated, you know, and so very young," added mamma
sweetly. Mrs. Vincent smiled indulgently, but made no comments: She had
encountered such mammas and such sweetly unsophisticated daughters
before and she then and there resolved to keep an extra watchful eye
upon this innocent one. Thus far, however, nothing alarming had
occurred, but Mrs. Vincent knew her material and was prepared for
almost anything. She also knew Lily Pearl and felt pretty sure that if
an upheaval ever took place it would turn out that Lily Pearl or Helen
had touched off the mine. The foregoing scene gives some hint of the
viewpoints of the young ladies in question.

During this digression Helen had caught up Wheedle's picture and was
pressing it rapturously to her fluttering bosom and exclaiming:

"You're a perfect darling! If I could have just one dance with _you_ I'd
be willing to _die_! Polly, how old is he!"

But Polly had left the room and was on her way back to Stella's. As she
reached it she came face to face with the Sturgeon and the Sturgeon's
eyes held no "lovelight" for her.

"Miss Howland, what was the cause of the wild shrieks which disturbed me
a moment since? Miss Montgomery says you can tell if you will and since
none of your companions seem inclined to do so, I will hear your
explanation. I was on my way to inform Miss Stewart that Mrs. Vincent
wished to see her in her study at once when this hideous uproar assailed
my ears."