er that age was the only cure.
Sometimes, however, one gets very good suggestions off those pages, good
hygienic suggestions, I mean."

And so Adele carried the conversation along at such a swift pace that
Molly did not have the chance to say what she had intended. She had
always regarded that kind of talk with supreme contempt: praise that
tapered into a sting. "It would have been more honest to have given the
sting without the praise," she thought, "and less hypocritical and
censorious."

It was Adele's trick to make you agree with her, and if you did, lead
you on to further and more dangerous ground, until you suddenly felt
yourself placed in the awkward position of saying something unkind
without having intended it.

It was strange that Judy was so blind to this trait of Adele's. But
then Adele was very attractive. There was a kind of abandon about her
that suited Judy's style. They had a great many tastes in common. Adele
was very talented and the two girls often went off on Saturday afternoon
sketching expeditions together.

"Nance, I'm ashamed of myself for thinking such things," whispered
Molly, on the way down to supper, "but there is something almost
Mephistophelean about Adele Windsor."

"She-devil, you mean," broke in Nance bluntly.

Molly laughed.

"Mephistophelean was more high sounding. Besides she's just like
Mephistopheles in 'Faust.' She doesn't speak right out, only whispers
and suggests. Innuendo is the word, isn't it? Sometimes I'm really
frightened for Judy."

"She is awfully crushed, but she'll wake up soon enough. She always
does," answered Nance carelessly.

But Molly had secret misgivings, in spite of Nance's assurances, and
furthermore, she was convinced that the crafty Adele was well aware of
these misgivings and that it gave her much private enjoyment to make
Molly uncomfortable.

"The trouble is I can't fight her with her own weapons," Molly thought.
"I'm not clever enough, and besides I wouldn't if I could. After all,
boys' methods of settling disputes by drawing a circle and fighting it
out are somehow much more honest. It would be worth a black eye and a
bloody nose to lay forever all that innuendo and sly insinuation."

"She's hypnotized Judy into putting her up for the Shakespeareans and
the Olla Podridas," said Nance. "And she'll get in. Nobody will dream of
blackballing her, you'll see."

Molly compressed her lips into a firm red line and said nothing, but she
was al