wake of the hurrying seniors. Her head buzzed with
frantic arguments. It was her own money--she had earned it. Nobody had a
right to dictate what she should do with it. Robbie Belle never could see
more than one side of a question. To forbid unnecessary expenditure just
because she accepted a loan to carry her through college! Who was to say
whether it was unnecessary or not? The Opera was part of her musical
education. She would repay the scholarship with interest at the earliest
possible date after she began to earn a salary. What meddling insolence!
The girls who held scholarships were the brightest and finest in
college--some of them. And to treat them as if they were extravagant,
silly little spendthrifts! It was honest. Hadn't she denied herself
everything all the year--clubs and dinners and drives and flowers and
ribbons and gloves and new books and fine note-paper and that cast of the
Winged Victory which she had wanted and wanted and wanted? Not that she
assumed any credit for such self-denial--it simply had to be, that was
all. But now, this was different. She owed it to herself not to miss such
a wonderful occasion. A chance in a century--that was what the senior
said.

Ting-aling, ting-aling! jangled the bell madly. The conductor paused, his
hand on the strap. A breathless girl sprang upon the platform, darted
into the car, tossed a packet upon a convenient lap.

"There are two seats for the Opera. We can't go." And she had leaped from
the moving steps and vanished through the great iron gates of the Lodge.

Back in the dormitory before the bulletin-board Miss Bonner, the graduate
fellow, was staring at the new placard. She gave a slight start of
astonishment at a glimpse of Berta hastening past her. Then because she
had heard the story from Robbie Belle two minutes earlier, she pretended
to be absorbed in the notices, for she suspected that any comment would
start the tears that Berta was holding back. However, she was smiling to
herself after the girl had vanished up the stairs. When the gong struck
for breakfast, she halted at the faculty table to whisper a few words to
the professor in her special department. The professor answered, "How
glad I am!"

"And you really believe that it would have prejudiced the scholarship
committee against Miss Abbott, if she had persisted in this extravagance?
She has worked so hard to earn it."

"I understand," the professor was sympathetic but unswerving from her
co