unseled with a level glance at Linda.
"What else can you expect? Let's go in to supper."

"Linda is peeved because the _Gay Girl_ was beaten this afternoon,"
laughed Laura Polk. "You know she thought she had a mortgage on the
race."

"Was she beaten?" asked Bess, with eager interest. "I declare, my
mind's been so full of the accident that I'd almost forgotten that we
had a race."

"Yes," replied Laura gleefully. "She was beaten by more than a hundred
feet."

"And she had three chances where we had only one," put in Rhoda. "We
might have beaten our own mark if we had had our full number of trips."

"There's not much of the sport about Linda," commented Grace. "Any one
who beats her makes her an enemy. She takes it as a personal insult if
any one dares to get ahead of her."

"She can't be any more of an enemy to us than she always has been,"
concluded Bess. "But come along, Nan, and let's eat. My appetite's
keener than ever, now that I know we won."

"Was there ever anything the matter with your appetite, Bess?"
questioned Nan with a smile.

"Sometimes--not often. But, oh, Nan! neither of us would have had much
appetite if we had seriously injured that poor woman."

"You are right there. Every time I think of the narrow escape we had I
have to shiver."

"Yes, and supposing the sled had gone into a tree, or one of those sharp
rocks! Oh, it would have been dreadful!"

"We can count ourselves very lucky."

"And to think we won the race after all! That's the best news I've heard
in a long time."

"Oh, no, Bess. The best news is our escape, and Mrs. Bragley's, from
serious injury. The race doesn't count alongside of that."

"Well, maybe you are right. Nevertheless, I am awfully glad we won."

The rest of the girls had already had their supper, but there was plenty
left, and Nan and Bess did full justice to it. They had scarcely
finished when, a message came to Nan that Dr. Prescott, the head of the
school, wished to see her.

"I always feel nervous when I hear that Doctor Beulah wants to see me,"
remarked Laura, the madcap of the school. "But perhaps Nan has a better
conscience than I usually have. Run along now, Nan, and take your
medicine, and then come back and tell us all about it."

Nan went at once to the principal's room, and was graciously received by
the serene, handsome woman who directed the activities of Lakeview Hall.

Dr. Beulah Prescott was a woman of culture and marked executive ability.