ictim with one hand. "I do hope you'll forgive me for being so
careless." Then she sat down suddenly on the broken crust. "It's only
that my wrist hurts a little," she finished abruptly.

The girls had gathered around them by this time, sympathizing and
lamenting that they had not warned Betty in time. "But we thought of
course you saw Miss Ferris," said the tall senior, "and we supposed she
was looking out for you."

So this was Miss Ferris--the great Miss Ferris. Rachel had sophomore
zoology with her and Mary Brooks had said that she was considered the
most brilliant woman on the faculty. She was "house-teacher" at the
Hilton, and Alice Waite and Miss Madison were always singing her
praises.

She cut Betty's apologies and the girls' inquiries short. "My dear
child, it was all my fault, and you're the one who's hurt. Why didn't
you girls stop me sooner--call to me to go round the other way? I was in
a hurry and didn't see or hear you up there." Then she sat down on the
crust beside Betty. "Forgive me for laughing," she said, "but you did
look so exactly like a giant crab sidling along on that ridiculous
dust-pan. Have you sprained your wrist? Then you must come straight over
to my room and wait for a carriage."

Betty's feeble protests were promptly overruled, and supported by Mary
Brooks on one side and Miss Ferris on the other she was hurried over to
the Hilton House and tucked up in Miss Ferris's Morris chair by her open
fire, to await the arrival of the college doctor and a carriage. In
spite of her embarrassment at having upset so important a personage, and
the sharp pains that went shooting up and down her arm, she was almost
sorry when doctor and carriage arrived together. Miss Ferris was even
nicer than the girls had said. Somehow she made one feel at home
immediately as she bustled about bringing a towel and a lotion for
Betty's face, hot water for her wrist, and "butter-thins" spread with
delicious strawberry jam to keep her courage up. Before she knew it,
Betty was telling her all about her direful experiences during
examination week, how frightened she had been, and how sleepy she was
now,--"not just now of course"--and how she had been all ready to go
home when the spill came. And Miss Ferris nodded knowingly at Mary and
laughed her little rippling laugh.

"Just like these foolish little freshmen; isn't it?" she said, exactly
as if she had been one last year too. And yet there was a suspicion of
gray