d Swiss music boxes, and May was
industriously turning the crank.

"Register fear, Miss Fielding!" shouted Edith, energetically. "Fear, I
say! Don't you realize that you are about to be flung over a cliff and
that a mad bull is waiting bel-o-o-w to catch you on his horns? Close up
of the bull, please!"

Ruth had been first surprised, then not a little displeased; but she
knew instinctively if she showed that this buffoonry offended and
troubled her it would only be repeated again and again.

Much better able than her chum, Helen Cameron, to control her features,
she began now to smile broadly.

"Girls!" she said aloud to her two friends, "it must be that that girl
knows Mr. Grimes personally or has seen him at work. You remember Mr.
Grimes, the Alectrion director who filmed our play at Briarwood?"

"And was so nasty to Hazel Gray? I should say!" exclaimed Jennie,
instantly falling in with Ruth's attempt to pass the incident off as a
joke.

"I think _she's_ nasty-mean," muttered Helen, her black eyes snapping.

"If you played that tune while making a film for me, Miss MacGreggor, I
should want to jig," Heavy cried, and started to do a few ridiculous
steps in front of the black box.

Ruth continued to smile, too, saying to Edith Phelps: "You might have
warned us of this. I'd have liked to primp a little before posing for
the camera."

The other girls laughed. It did not take much to make them laugh, and it
is possible that they laughed as much at Edie as with her. But as the
trio of freshmen went on toward Dare Hall, Ruth shook her head
doubtfully.

"What's the matter, Ruthie?" asked Helen, squeezing her arm. "The mean
things!"

"I wonder," murmured Ruth.

"You wonder what?" demanded Helen.

Ruth sighed. "I guess fame isn't always an asset," she said.

CHAPTER VIII

THE STONE FACE

Ruth knew better than to show anger over any such silly joke. If she was
to be made the laughing stock of her class by the sophomores, she might
as well face it and bear the cross good-naturedly.

Ruth was as sensitive as any refined girl. It hurt her to be ridiculed.
But she had not spent years at boarding school without learning that the
best way--indeed, the only way--to bear successfully such indignity
is to ignore it. That is, to ignore the fun poked at one as far as
possible. To bear the jokes with a smile. So she would not allow her
friends to comment much upon this scene before the gymnasium building.

S