anced around the room with a peculiar shrinking look, one
would say a look of dread, that Peggy did not understand.

"Who's next door to you?" she asked, briefly. "Rose Barclay, for one, I
know. Who is on the other side?"

Lobelia thought it was another freshman, but was not sure.

"Have they troubled you?" asked Peggy, suspiciously.

But Lobelia shook her head, and seemed so distressed at the question
that Peggy did not know what to think.

"Please, please don't bother about me!" she implored. "I dare say it
will be a good deal better now, after you and Miss Merryweather being so
brave and so kind. I don't want to say anything against anybody.
Please, please forget all about it, Peggy."

"I want you to be brave yourself," cried Peggy; and Lobelia started
again, and shrank in her chair. "Don't be so--so--well, I don't know any
word but meeching, and Margaret won't let me say that. But have a spirit
of your own, and stand up to them, and give 'em as good as they send. I
would, I tell you, quick enough, if they tried it on me."

Lobelia looked at her with hopeless eyes. "But I am not you!" she said.
"I--Peggy, I know just how I look, and how I seem, and how little and
ugly and queer I am. I don't wonder they laugh, I don't, really. I
haven't any spirit, either; I can't have. You can't do anything with me;
it isn't any use."

Peggy gazed at her, with eyes almost as hopeless as her own. Yet she
must make one more attempt; and with it the honest blood came into her
face.

"Look here, Lobelia!" she said, "I am awkward, too, and shy, and--and
stupid, awfully stupid. Why, my cousin Rita used to call me--never
mind, that was only before she grew so kind! But I know what it is to be
laughed at, my dear! Only this morning, in rhetoric, Miss Pugsley was
just as hateful as she could be, and all the girls laughed; yes, they
did. So you are not so different as you think. Why,--I don't mind
telling you,--when I came along just now, I was trying to get to my own
room, so that I could have a good cry. There, Lobelia! now how do you
feel?" Lobelia raised her eyes with a wondering look; but next moment
her eyes fell on the looking-glass and she shook her head.

"No!" she said. "No, Peggy! You are kind, and you want to make me feel
comfortable; but look!"

She motioned toward the mirror. Peggy looked, and her kind heart sank.
She herself was no beauty; her round, fair face and honest blue eyes
were pleasant to look at, and she