d room, the sound of voices in
conversation came to them.

"Can you let me have some perfume, Erma, and a fine handkerchief? I
neglected to put mine in the laundry."

"Help yourself," was the reply.

Sara smiled. "Erma Thomas is easily worked. If she does not take a firm
stand, she'll keep Renee in perfume and other extras for the entire
year."

Just then the door opened and Renee Loveland came out. She was a tall,
handsome girl, with the bearing of a princess. She bore in her hands a
bottle of perfume and two dainty handkerchiefs.

The campus sloped naturally toward the public road; yet it was several
feet higher. The boundary had been made definite by a low cement coping.
On this, sat several girls, among which was Berenice Smith. Across the
road was an ice-cream wagon, surrounded by a score of girls with their
purses in their hands. The ice-cream man was measuring cream into small
wooden butter-plates.

"Here's the way we do," said Sara as Hester looked dubiously about in
search of means with which she might dispose of her cream.

"This is the way." Sara deftly broke off a bit of the dish where it
curved upward. "These make the best spoons in the world, and one never
need bother keeping them in order."

Soon walking by two's and three's, across the campus, moved the girls,
each bearing in her hand her wooden dish with ice-cream.

Berenice sat alone on the coping. Hester Alden was not a reader of faces
and could give no reasons for her pet likes and dislikes. She
instinctively did not like Berenice, although the acquaintance had gone
no further than a passing word. Berenice was dark, with coloring which
inclined to swarthiness; her brow was low, and her eyes small and deeply
set. She made an effort to be pleasant and invariably made flattering
remarks to those with whom she conversed. As the girls approached, she
held out her purse toward Sara.

"Be good and bring me a chocolate and peach cream," she said. "I am as
far as I am allowed to go."

Taking the purse, Sara performed the commission and returned.

"For how long?" she asked.

"Two weeks. One week is almost over."

This was all Greek to Hester. She looked from one to the other; but
they, taking it for granted that all the school world understood,
offered neither explanation nor information.

As they crossed the tan-bark, Mame Cross met them. She looked like a
fashion-plate in a tailored gown and handsome hat.

"I've had permission to go down