between sympathy for her mother and her own disappointment,
Marjorie had experienced a desire to go to her captain's room and cry
her eyes out, but being fashioned of sturdier stuff, she made a
desperate effort to brace up and be a good soldier. This was just
another of those miserable "vicissitudes" that no one could foresee. She
must face it without grumbling. Her father had already telephoned for a
physician when she entered her mother's room, and Marjorie put on her
sweetest smile as she kissed her mother and assured her that she didn't
in the least mind going to school alone.

As she followed the young woman up the stairs and down the long corridor
Marjorie felt her heart beat a little faster. Her low spirits of the
early morning began to rise. How good it seemed actually to be in school
again! And what a beautiful school it was! Even Franklin would appear
dingy beside it. She gazed appreciatively at the high ceiling and the
shining oak wainscotings of the wide corridor through which she was
passing. When her guide, who was tall, thin and plain of face, opened
the last door on the right and ushered her into a beautiful sunshiny
office which seemed more like a living-room than a place wherein
business was transacted, Marjorie uttered an involuntary, "Oh, how
lovely!"

"Yes, isn't it though," returned the tall girl. "This is Miss Archer's
own idea, and, so far, it's proving a brilliant success. That is, we all
think so. Is Miss Archer in her private office?" she asked the young
woman who had risen from her desk near the door and came forward to
receive them.

Marjorie would have liked to ask her new acquaintance what she meant,
but at that moment a door at the farther end of the room opened and a
stately, black-haired woman, with just a suspicion of gray at her
temples, emerged. She turned a pair of grave, deep-set eyes upon the
tall girl and said, pleasantly: "Well, Ellen, what can I do for you this
morning?"

"Oh, Miss Archer!" exclaimed the tall girl, eagerly, with an impulsive
step forward, "you haven't forbidden basketball this year, have you?
Stella and I couldn't believe our ears when we heard it this morning!"
It was evident that the impetuous Ellen was on the best possible terms
with her principal.

"I don't remember having issued an order to that effect," smiled Miss
Archer. "Where did you hear that bit of news?"

Ellen Seymour's plain face flushed, then paled. "It was just a rumor,"
she replied wi