dressing-gown and shook
down her hair.

"Well, in a way, yes," replied Charlotte. "Nothing to worry you
really, and it's really not my affair, except that it concerns you and
Alma. It's only that I'm afraid that that donkey Mildred Lloyd got
Alma into rather a scrape yesterday. Oh, don't look so scared--it's
all fixed up. Only, if I were you, I'd have a good talk with Alma
about Mildred."

"But what happened?" cried Nancy, who had turned quite pale, in spite
of Charlotte's hasty reassurances.

"Well, the chief trouble was that they overstayed their time in town
yesterday. Ten o'clock is the very latest that any of us can come in
on a holiday, As you know, and as they knew, and as that little
pinhead, Mademoiselle, knew. It seems that one of the boys persuaded
them to stay in for dinner and to go to the theatre again afterwards.
So they didn't get in until after twelve. Well, as you can imagine,
Amelia went on a regular rampage. And I've a notion that she was a
good deal harder on poor Alma than she was on Mildred. Amelia is more
afraid of angering Mildred than Mildred is of angering her. Mildred
always takes Mademoiselle as her chaperone because she is quite sure of
being able to make that little poodle do anything she wants. And
Mildred, being the daughter of Marshall Lloyd, is _persona grata_ here,
and can wriggle out of any scrape. I know Mildred down to the ground.
I've roomed with her for a year. For some reason or other she never
tried to coax me into any rule breaking--probably because we were never
intimate at all, and because she knew that I don't think there's any
fun or sense in that sort of thing. It doesn't take any great
cleverness to break a rule, and you don't get anything much by doing
so. If you want my opinion, I think that Mildred is a very unsafe sort
of friend for a girl like Alma. I don't believe that Alma honestly
likes her--Mildred is more than inclined to be a bully, and extremely
capricious--but somehow a lot of girls feel flattered when Mildred
'takes them up,' and will do anything she tells them to, without using
their own common sense for a minute. I'm saying all this to you,
Nancy, when I wouldn't say it to anyone else. I don't like the idea of
picking to pieces a girl whom you roomed with for a year, but I think
that both of us ought to try to make Alma open her eyes before Mildred
gets her into any more mischief."

Nancy sat silent for a time, staring out of the wi