eter music than her
voice.

"Do you--do you think I ought to?" stammered the freshman, moving toward
the window.

"One owes it to the catamountain!" cried Grace. "As for the owls,--well,
they will be abroad!" she added, with a low laugh. "They would be far
enough abroad if they knew. Come, Innocent!"

She glided out of the window, and Peggy followed, her heart beating to
suffocation, her cheeks glowing with excitement. To be chosen by the
Lone Wolf (for this was another of the wild girl's nicknames, the third
being Ishmael) as the companion of one of her solitary rambles was
perhaps the most thrilling thing that had ever come into Peggy's simple
life. Probably she would have had courage to resist an invitation from
any of the frolicsome parties that came and went through her room; she
had no power to resist this. Silently she followed the Scapegoat down
the iron ladder of the fire-escape, across the lawn, out into the open
road.

Grace turned to her with one of her sudden movements, and took both her
hands.

"The world's before us, where to choose!" she cried. "What shall it be,
Innocent? Shall we climb up into the tower and ring the fire-bell? or go
for apples? This is your first expedition, you shall choose."

"Oh, no, Grace; please! I don't know. I cannot. I'll go wherever you go,
that's all!"

The Scapegoat meditated. "On the whole," she announced, "soda seems to
be the thing. We'll go and have some soda, Innocent."

"Go down-town?" gasped Peggy.

"Yes; why not? Only to Mrs. Button's. You know she is the college
grandmother; why shouldn't she be ours? Many's the time Granny Button
has sheltered me from the wrath to come. Besides, I have had no
marshmallows for a week. A vow, a vow! I have a vow in heaven to have
marshmallows once a week, merely for the honour of the school."

Granny Button, as she was called, kept a neat little shop at the corner
of the High Street. Here she dispensed soda-water, candy, and cakes to
the students of school and college. She was a little old woman, with a
face like a dry but still sound winter apple, and she shook her head
reprovingly as the two girls entered.

"Now, Miss Wolfe!" she said. "You hadn't ought to come here at this
time, now you hadn't, my dear. What do you want? I declare, I've most of
a mind not to give it to you, for a wild slip as you are. What would
Miss Russell say if she should come in this blessed minute, Miss Grace?"

"Ah, but she won't, granny!" s