l for her hasty tongue,
she opened the note again and reread it:

"DEAR MISS BROWN:

"I have hypnotized the editor into accepting that article of
yours; only you must hurry up with it. It will run probably for
two and a half columns on the College Notes page and we can use
three pictures. Just tell whatever you want about the college
and the girls and what they do, starting off with the Jubilee,
as I suggested. Send it to me here by Friday and I will
appreciate it. Thank you for the wonderful time you gave me at
Wellington.

"Sincerely your friend,
"JAMES LUFTON."

Late that afternoon Molly rushed over to the _Commune_ office, and,
seizing a pencil and paper, began to write. At the top of the page she
wrote, "Dearest Mother"--"just to make myself think it's a letter," she
thought. But the words worked like a magic talisman, for the pencil
traveled busily and by suppertime she had almost finished.

On the way back from the village next morning, where she had been to buy
the photographs, she stopped at the Beta Phi House and left a note on
the hall table for Miss Windsor.

"I am sorry I was rude to you. I suppose red-headed people have got high
tempers and henceforth I shall try to curb mine."

CHAPTER XIII.

THE DROP OF POISON.

Molly was very proud of her first newspaper article and exultant at
being able to answer the unjust libels of Miss Slammer. She could
scarcely wait to tell Nance and Judy about it, but decided to drop in at
the infirmary and relate her triumph to the Professor if it was possible
to see him. Alice Fern was on guard that morning, however, and the Swiss
Guards at the Vatican could not have been more formidable.

"I'm sure the Pope of Rome doesn't live a more secluded life," thought
Molly as she departed.

Glancing at the tower clock, Molly saw that she still had three quarters
of an hour before the lecture on early Victorian Poets by the Professor
of English Literature from Exmoor, who came over several times a week
to substitute for Professor Green.

"I think I'll run in and see Otoyo a few minutes," Molly said to
herself. "The girls can wait. There's been something queer about Otoyo
lately. She keeps to herself like a little sick animal. I can't make her
out at all."

There was no response to Molly's knock on Otoyo's door a few minutes
later, and, after a pause, she opened the door and peeped in.

The blinds had been drawn