hat do you mean?"

"I mean," said Ruth, smiling, "that we must be careful about joining
any crowd of girls until we know just how things are."

"Well," said Helen, dropping her arm and walking to the other end of
the room for no reason whatsoever, for she walked back again, in a
moment, "I don't see why you are so suspicious of Mary Cox."

"I don't know that I am," laughed Ruth. "But we have no means of
comparison yet----"

A mellow bell began to ring from some other building--probably in the
tower of the main building of Briarwood Hall.

"There!" ejaculated Helen, in some relief. "That must be to announce
supper."

"Are you ready, Helen?" asked Ruth.

"Yes."

"Then let us go."

There was a card on which were printed several simple rules of conduct
tacked to the door. The chums had read them. One was that rooms
should be left unlocked in the absence of the occupants, and Ruth and
Helen went out into the corridor, leaving their door open. There were
other girls in the passage then, all moving toward the stairway. Some
of them nodded kindly to the Infants. Others only stared.

Ruth saw Miss Steele in advance, and whispered to Helen:

"Come, dear; let us speak to her and tell her we cannot accept her
Invitation for this evening."

But Helen held back. "You can tell her if you like," she said, rather
sullenly.

"But, let us be nice about it," urged Ruth. "I'll tell her we
overlooked the fact that we were already engaged for the meeting of the
Up and Doing Club. I'll explain."

Helen suddenly seized her chum's arm more tightly. "You _are_ a good
little thing, Ruthie," she declared. "Come on."

They hurried after the Senior and caught up with her at the foot of the
stairs. She was not alone, but Ruth touched her arm and asked to speak
with her.

"What's the matter, Infants?" demanded the Senior, but smiling at them.

Helen flushed at the expression, but Ruth was too earnest in her
intention to smooth over the difficulty to notice so small a thing.

"Oh, Miss Steele," she said, "I am sorry to beg off from the kind
invitation you gave us. We cannot go with you this evening. It seems
that it was already understood with Miss Cox that we should go with
her."

"Oh!" exclaimed Madge Steele, a little stiffly, "you are already
pledged, then?"

"Yes, we are pledged to attend the meeting of the Up and Doing Club
this evening. It was very kind of Miss Cox to invite us," said Ruth,
calmly. "And