be friends. I'm sure we'd
get along famously together. It is impossible, though. Miss Dean
wouldn't let you."

Mary suddenly sat very erect. She had listened in amazement to Mignon's
recital. Could she believe her ears? Had her hitherto-beloved Marjorie
been guilty of trouble-making? And all for the sake of Constance
Stevens. Marjorie must indeed care a great deal for her. She had not
been mistaken, then, in her belief that she had been supplanted in her
chum's heart. And now Mignon was suggesting that Marjorie would not
allow her to be friends with the girl whom she had wronged. Mary did not
stop to consider that there are always two sides to a story. Swayed by
her resentment against Constance, she preferred to believe anything
which she might hear against her.

"Please understand, once and for all, that Marjorie has nothing to say
about whoever I choose to have for a friend," she said with decision. "I
hope I am free to do as I please. I shall be very glad to know you
better, Miss La Salle, and I am sorry that you have been so badly
treated."

The ringing of the first recitation-bell broke in upon the conversation.

"Oh, gracious, I haven't looked at the bulletin board. Excuse me, Miss
Raymond. I'll see you later and we'll have a nice long talk. I'm sure I
shall be pleased to have _you_ for a friend."

"Are you going to recite geometry in this first section?" asked Mary
eagerly. The students were already filing out of the great room.

"Let me see." Mignon consulted the bulletin board. "Why, yes, I might as
well."

"Oh, splendid!" glowed Mary. "Then you can show me the way to the
geometry classroom."

"Delighted, I'm sure," returned Mignon. Her black eyes sparkled with
triumph. At last she had found a way to even her score with Marjorie
Dean. With almost uncanny shrewdness she had divined what Marjorie
herself had not discovered. This blue-eyed baby of a girl, for Mignon
mentally characterized her as such, was jealous of Marjorie's friendship
with the Stevens girl. Very well. She would take a hand and help matters
along. Of course there was a strong chance that it might all come to
nothing. Marjorie might take Mary in charge the moment school was over
and tell her a few things. Yet that was hardly possible. Much as she
hated the brown-eyed girl who had worsted her at every point, in her own
cowardly heart lurked a respect for Marjorie's high standard of honor.
So far Mary knew nothing against her. Perhaps she