over us?"

"Shame!" cried the girls. "Bully!"

"Bully!" cried Peggy, dropping her hold of Miss Haight, and turning to
face the others. "You call me a bully, and you yourselves, eight great
grown girls, standing around to torment and torture this poor helpless
child? Shame on you! Shame on you all, every one! I'm ashamed to be in
the same school with you. I--" (Here, I am sorry to say, Peggy forgot
that she was a young lady, forgot everything save that she was the
daughter of hot-blooded James Montfort.) "I could whip the whole lot of
you, and I'll do it if you dare to say 'Boo!' but you don't!"

It was a fact that no one did say "Boo!" There was a pause, Peggy
standing with folded arms before the shrinking child, her whole figure
dilated with passion, till she seemed to tower above the rest, who for
their part cowered before her.

Rose Barclay was the first to speak.

"We are very fortunate to find a leader for the freshman class," she
said, spitefully, "and such a leader! Miss Montfort is too high-toned
to help a classmate with her lesson, but not too high-toned to talk like
a Bowery rowdy. Come, along, girls! I for one don't care to listen to
any more such refined, elegant talk!"

"Yes, you'd better go along!" said Peggy, the Valkyr, briefly.

"Pray, may I ask," said Blanche Haight, with a bitter sneer, "are you
monitor of this corridor?"

"No," said a voice behind her; "but I am."

A girl had come quietly up the stairs, and was now standing close beside
the excited group, none of whom had seen or heard her,--a tall girl,
with red-gold hair, dressed as if she had just come from a journey.

"I am the monitor of this corridor," she repeated. "Please go to your
rooms, or I shall be obliged to report you."

The girls shrunk together, whispering, the freshmen questioning the
sophomores.

"Who is it? Who is it?"

"Hush! It's the junior president. Come along!"

The group melted away; another moment, and all were gone save Peggy, who
was now on the floor, with her arms around the little miserable
creature, who still shrank close against the wall, as if her life
depended on the contact.

"There, dear!" she cried. "They are gone. Come! Don't huddle up so, you
poor little thing. Those brutes are gone, and there's nobody here but
me, Peggy, and--" she glanced up at the tall girl. "Oh! won't you help
me?" she cried. "I think--she doesn't seem to hear what I am saying. Oh,
is she dead?"

"No," said the monitor