But she is tall and stately.'

"But she is not as sedate as she looks," added Betty, truthfully. "I'd
like her better if she didn't gush. That's the only word that will
express it. And it seemed queer for her to take me into her confidence
the minute she was introduced. Right away she gave me to understand that
she'd had a sort of an affair with Malcolm. She didn't say so in so many
words, but she gave me the impression that he had been deeply
interested in her, in a romantic way, you know."

Lloyd looked at Maud again, more critically this time, and with keener
interest. Then her thoughts flew back to the churchyard stile where they
had paused in their gathering of Christmas greens one winter day. For an
instant she seemed to see the handsome boy looking down at her, begging
a token of the Princess Winsome, and saying, in a low tone, "I'll be
whatever you want me to be, Lloyd."

Juliet's voice broke in on her reverie. "Miss Sherman, allow me to
present Miss Minor."

Maud was slightly taller than Lloyd, but it was not her extra inches
alone which seemed to give her the air of looking down on every one. It
was her patronizing manner. Lloyd resented it. Instinctively she drew
herself up and responded somewhat haughtily.

"My dear, I've been simply _dying_ to meet you," began Maud, effusively.
"Ever since I found out that you were the girl Malcolm MacIntyre used to
be so fond of."

Lloyd responded coldly, certain that Malcolm had not discussed their
friendship in a way to warrant this outburst from a stranger.

"Do you know his brothah Keith, too?" she asked. "We're devoted to both
the boys. You might say we grew up togethah, for they visited in the
Valley so much. We've been playmates since we were babies. You must meet
the Walton girls. They are Malcolm's cousins, you know."

Before Maud realized how it came about, Lloyd had graciously turned her
over to Allison and Kitty, and made her escape with burning cheeks and a
resentful feeling. Maud's words kept repeating themselves: "So adorably
romantic. The girl Malcolm _used to be_ so fond of!" They made her
vaguely uncomfortable. She wondered why.

For another hour she went on making acquaintances and adding to her
store of information about Warwick Hall. They couldn't have
chafing-dishes in their rooms, one frivolous sophomore told her. The
insurance companies objected after one girl spilled a bottle of alcohol
and set fire to the curtains. But once a week thos