window. Miss
Gordon's mind was prone to wander thus from the subject in hand to such
sights, her teachers often found. The song of a yellow warbler in the
school maples, the whirl of scarlet leaves across the window pane, or
the gleam of snow on the far-off hilltops, would drive away every item
of knowledge concerning the value of (a+b)2 or the characteristics of a
parallelogram.

The door swung suddenly open and the Principal's bald head shot into
view. His eyes were stern. Evidently he had come in war and not in
peace.

"Ah, Miss Gordon!" he said, briskly. "Yes, Miss Gordon! Just step
this way a minute!"

He held open the door and Miss Gordon stepped in, leaving all her
courage on the other side. She slipped sideways into a chair and
looked up at him with scared attention. Evidently it was the picture.

"Miss Gordon," said the Principal, seating himself in his revolving
chair, which creaked in a way that reminded Miss Gordon horribly of
stories of the guillotine, "I am making out the list of those whom I
consider competent to write on the final examinations, and I feel it my
duty to notify you that I cannot see my way clear to include your name."

Elizabeth fairly crumpled up in her chair. This was awful--the thing
she had most feared had come upon her at last. She sat speechless.

"Your papers on mathematics are quite hopeless," he continued, growing
more querulous because his pity was aroused. "It's out of the question
that you should write. I've done my best to show you that you should
give less time to English subjects and devote more to Algebra and your
Euclid." He arose and blustered up and down the room.

"You haven't a mathematical head," he was saying for the third time
when a sharp rap upon the door interrupted. Dr. Primrose, looking very
much relieved, opened it. Miss Gordon turned away to the window to
hide the rising tears.

There was a short, hurried conversation at the door, and the teacher
turned to his victim. He had a big, warm heart that was vastly
relieved at the prospect of escape from a most unpleasant duty.

"Ah, Miss Gordon," he said briskly. "Here are two gentlemen to see
you. You have permission to go home early this afternoon, by special
request. Kindly bear in mind what I have told you."

He stepped quickly aside, and ushered in two tall, young men, at the
same time closing the door behind him.

At the same instant all Miss Gordon's troubles were shut out wi