me of
the girls around her, and now she rose again. Her "madame president" was
so obviously prior to Kate Denise's that when Kate was recognized there
was an ominous murmur of discontent and Jean apologized and promptly
reversed her decision.

"Perhaps I oughtn't to speak twice," said Betty blushing at the
commotion she had caused, "but if we are to change our vote, some of us
think it would be fun to hold a preliminary debate now, and choose our
speaker on her merits. We did that once at school----"

"Good stunt," called some one.

"I move that Miss Wales as chairman select a committee of arrangements,
and that we have a five minute recess while the committee meets."

"I move that there be two committees, one for nominating speakers and
the other for choosing a subject."

"I move that we reconsider our other vote first."

The motions were coming in helter-skelter from all quarters, instead of
decorously from the front row as usual. The president was trying vainly
to restore order and to remember whose motion should have precedence,
and to make way somehow for the prearranged nomination, which so far had
been entirely crowded out, when three girls in one corner of the room
began thumping on their seat-arms and chanting in rhythmic, insistent
chorus, "We--want--Emily--Davis. We--want--Emily--Davis.
We--want--Emily--Davis."

Hardly any one in the room had ever heard of Emily Davis, but the three
girls constituted an original and very popular little coterie known
individually as Babe, Babbie, and Bob, or collectively as "the three
B's." They roomed on the top floor of the Westcott House and were famous
in the house for being at the same time prime favorites of the matron
and the ringleaders in every plot against her peace of mind, and outside
for their unique and diverting methods of recreation. It was they who
had successfully gulled Mary Brooks with a rumor as absurd as her own;
and accounts of the "spread" they had handed out to the night-watchman
in a tin pail, and dangled just out of his reach, in the hope of
extracting a promise from that incorruptible worthy not to report their
lights, until the string incontinently broke and the ice cream and
lobster salad descended as a flood, were reported to have made even the
august president of the college laugh. Ergo, if they "wanted" Emily
Davis, she must be worth "wanting." So their friends took up the cry,
and it quickly spread and gathered volume, until nearly eve