of intermediates and juniors. To have secured such congenial
room-mates was an asset for which she could not be sufficiently
thankful. Whatever troubles might await her downstairs, it was a
comfort to know that she had three allies ready to flock to her support.
She had not known any of them well in the past, but as they seemed
prepared to offer their friendship, she also was ready to act the part
of chum. By exchanging desks with Linda Slater, she managed to secure a
seat next to Verity in school, and entered into an arrangement with her
that they should supply the missing gaps in each other's notes, for Miss
Strong often lectured so rapidly that it was impossible to keep up with
her.

"I wish I knew shorthand," grumbled Ingred, comparing scribbles with
Verity as the girls tidied their hair for tea. "How anybody's expected
to get down all Miss Strong tells us, I can't imagine! It's impossible."

"I don't try," admitted Fil. "At least I do try--I put a bit here and
there, but I write so slowly, I'm only half-way through before she's
bounced on to something else, and I've missed the beginning of it. I
have to stop, too, sometimes, to think how to spell the words."

The others laughed, for Fil's spelling was proverbial in the form, and
was often of a purely phonetic character. Miss Strong had periodical
crusades to improve it, but generally gave them up as a bad job, and
recommended constant use of a dictionary instead.

"Though you can't go about the world with a dictionary perpetually under
your arm," she had remarked on the last occasion. "If you have to write
a letter in a hurry, and you begin 'Dear Maddam' and end 'Yours
trueley'--well! Please don't let anybody know you've been educated here,
that's all, or it will be a poor advertisement for the College!"

Ingred was not at all delighted to be still in Miss Strong's form. She
only moderately liked this mistress. Undoubtedly Miss Strong was a
clever teacher, but sarcasm was one of her favorite weapons of
discipline. Some of the girls did not mind it, indeed thought it rather
amusing, even when directed against themselves, and enjoyed it hugely
when someone else was the victim of the sally. Ingred, however, proud
and sensitive, writhed under the attacks of Miss Strong's sharp tongue,
and would often have preferred a punishment to a witticism. As a matter
of fact, the mistress rarely gave punishments, and was proud of her
ability to control her form without resort