they stood on the steps and Debby turned for a farewell
embrace. The tears were very close to Hester's eyes; but she forced them
back, determined that she would not vex her Aunt Debby by a show of
feeling.

Debby put her arms about Hester, kissed her warmly and said, "Be a good
girl, Hester and do as the teachers tell you."

Such had been her words ten years before when she had taken her into the
primary grade and left her in Miss Carns's care. Hester answered meekly
now as then, "Yes, Aunt Debby."

Debby went down the winding path. Once she glanced back. Hester was
standing erect with her head thrown proudly back. It was as though she
were declaring, "You may kill me, but I shall not cry."

The haughty proud turn of the head! Where had Debby seen that before?
The experiences of the day rushed over her like a flood. Hester's poise
and turn of the head were like that of the sweet-faced woman in the
carriage.

CHAPTER IV

Miss Loraine, so the hall-teacher informed Hester, would be her
roommate. Miss Loraine, however, was not at the seminary at present. She
had come the previous day and attended to business matters, put her room
in order and had then gone out to the home of her aunt who lived at a
country place called Valehurst.

This information was given to Hester while she was being conducted to
her room. The seminary and living-rooms were under one roof. The main
building was a great rectangular block, containing offices, class rooms,
dining-hall and chapel. From this extended an east dormitory, and one on
the west. Each suite of rooms consisted of a bedroom and a small study
or sitting-room. This was occupied by two students. Number Sixty-two
which Hester was to occupy with Helen Loraine was on the second floor
just where the dormitory joined the main building. It overlooked the
front campus and was considered one of the most desirable rooms in the
school.

Hester, being new to the ways of boarding-school life did not realize
how fortunate she was in securing so fine a location. Helen Loraine had
been a seminary girl for two years and knew the "ropes." The previous
spring, she had put in an application for Number Sixty-two. She had come
down several days before the opening of school to take possession,
feeling sure that if she was once placed there, no misunderstanding
would arise. There had been several instances at Dickinson, where girls
had moved in their trunks and took possession before the rig