id not meet your classmates,
who had already gone to their rooms. Miss Parkins, Miss Barclay, Miss
Manton,--this is Miss Peggy Montfort. I hope you will introduce her to
the other young ladies after tea."

The three girls nearest Peggy bowed, all more or less shyly; it was
comforting to feel that there were others who felt as strange as she
did. In fact, Miss Parkins, who sat on her left, was so manifestly and
miserably frightened that Peggy felt herself a lion by comparison, and,
by way of improving acquaintance, asked her boldly for the salt.

Miss Parkins gasped, shivered, clutched the pepper-pot, and dropped it
into her own plate. The other freshmen giggled nervously, but Peggy
glowed with compassion and sympathy.

"Never mind!" she whispered. "That's just the kind of thing I am doing
all the time. There is the salt; why, I can reach it myself, and nobody
ever wants pepper, anyhow. There, that's all right!"

The girl lifted a pair of eyes so red with crying, so humble and
grateful and altogether piteous, that Peggy's own eyes almost
overflowed. She put her hand under the table, found a little limp, cold
paw, and gave it a hearty squeeze. "Cheer up!" she said. "It'll be
better pretty soon, I--I guess. I am--homesick--too!"

Then, finding a sob rising in her throat, she hastily filled her mouth
with buttered toast, choked, and caught herself with a wild sound, half
cough, half snort, that brought the eyes of the whole table upon her.
The strange thing was, Peggy did not seem to care this time. They were
only freshmen like herself. Any one of them might have choked just as
well as she, and she was bigger than any of them. If those other girls
had seen, now! not Bertha, but the other two! She glanced over to the
opposite table, where the two V's sat facing her; but they were
chattering away, with no thought of freshmen or their doings. Viola
Vincent looked very pretty in a pale blue blouse and white pique skirt;
she was evidently in high spirits, and was patting her hair and her
waist with perfect satisfaction.

"Perf'ly _fine_!" came to Peggy's ears, in her clear piping voice. "My
_dear_, it will be simply _dandy_!"

Peggy glanced at the Principal, she hardly knew why, except that
Margaret disliked slang; and she saw her brows contract with a momentary
look of vexation. "It does sound rather horrid!" she thought. "I wonder
if I shall have to give up saying 'awfully!' That would be perfectly
awful. Besides, it s