elligent gaze of her dark eyes.

"I ought to introduce myself!" she said. "My name is Bertha Haughton.
I'm a neighbour of yours. No!" she added, laughing, as Peggy glanced
involuntarily across the way. "That is Vanity Fair. I don't live there;
I live in the Owls' Nest, some way down the corridor."

"Are all the rooms named?" asked Peggy, wondering.

"Most of them, on this corridor, at least. There's Vanity Fair and Rag
Fair and the Smithsonian Institute on the other side--oh! and the China
Shop and the Corner Grocery, too. And on this side is ours, the Owls'
Nest, and Bedlam, and the Soap Factory, and the Nursery, and this room
of yours."

"Oh, how interesting!" cried Peggy. "Do tell me what the names mean! Why
Owls' Nest?"

"Oh, well, we got the name of studying hard, that's all. We don't study
harder than ever so many others, but in our freshman year we--my chum
and I--passed an examination that a good many failed in, and so we got
the name of owls. That's really all! And the China Shop--well! Ada Bull
had it last year, and she had a mania for china-painting; and that with
the name, together, you see! Then there is the Soap Factory,--that is
quite a story! you really want to hear it? well!

"You know we are not allowed to buy candy, or to have it sent to us.
This girl's mother--I won't tell her name, she's in college now--was a
very silly person, and she sent her a great box of chocolate, five or
six pounds (though she knew the rules, mind you!), all done up like
soap."

"Like soap!" repeated Peggy.

"Yes! the box was marked soap, and the chocolate was in little cakes,
just like the little sample cakes of soap they send round, don't you
know? and each cake wrapped up in paper, with '_Savon de Chocolat_'
stamped on it. It came from Paris, I believe.

"Well, of course the girl ought to have told Miss Russell at once, but
she didn't. She kept the box under her bed, and told all the girls she
knew; and of course they kept coming into her room all day long, and her
pocket was always full, and, however it happened, at last Miss Russell
suspected something. One day she came suddenly upon Margie in the hall,
and saw that she was eating something, and asked her what it was. We're
not allowed to eat going about the house, of course. Margie had just
bitten off half a cake, and she had the other half in her hand, with the
printed side up, '_Savon de Chocolat!_' and she said 'Soap!'

"'Soap!' said Miss Russell.

"'Ye