times a week, I will arrange about salary with her father and the
lessons may begin immediately."

It was impossible for Molly to disguise her feelings of relief and joy
at this windfall. Her lack of funds was, as usual, an ever-present
shadow in the background of her mind, although, through some fine
investments which Mrs. Brown had been able to make that summer, the
Brown family hoped to be relieved by another year of the pressure of
poverty.

CHAPTER III.

A CLASHING OF WITS.

Queen's Cottage seemed destined to shelter girls of interesting and
unusual types.

"They always do flock together, you know," Miss Pomeroy had remarked to
the President, as the two women sat talking in the President's office
one day. The question had come up with the subject of the new Japanese
student, the first of her nation ever to seek learning in the halls of
Wellington.

"They do," said the President, "but whether it's the first comers
actively persuading the next ones or whether it's a matter of
unconscious attraction is hard to tell."

"In this case I understand it's a matter of very conscious attraction on
one side and no persuasion on the other," replied Miss Pomeroy. "That
charming overgrown girl from Kentucky, Miss Brown, although she's as
poor as a church mouse and last year even blacked boots to earn a little
money, is one of the chief attractions, I think. But some of the other
girls are quite remarkable. Margaret Wakefield lives there, you know.
She makes as good a speech as her politician father. It will be
interesting to watch her career if she only doesn't spoil everything by
marrying."

The two spinsters looked at each other and laughed.

"She won't," answered the President. "She's much too ambitious."

"Then," went on Miss Pomeroy, "there's Julia Kean. She could do almost
anything she wished, and like all such people she doesn't want to do
anything. She hasn't a spark of ambition. It's Miss Brown who keeps
her up to the mark. The girl was actually about to run away last winter
just at mid-years. She lost her courage, I believe, and there was a
remarkable scene, but she was induced to stay."

"Who are the other girls?" asked the President thoughtfully.

"One of them, you recall, is a daughter of the famous suffragette, Mrs.
Anna Oldham. But I fancy the poor daughter has had quite enough of
suffrage. The only other really interesting characters at Queen's,
besides your Japanese, are two sophomores w