f this sort, because her
friends disapproved of her?"

Betty hesitated. "Yes--yes, I have. Excuse me for not going into
particulars, Miss Ferris, but there was a thing she did when she came
here that she never does now, because she found how others felt about
it. Indeed, I think there are several things."

Miss Ferris nodded silently. "Then why not appeal to the same people who
influenced her before?"

It was the question that Betty had been dreading, but she met it
unflinchingly. "One of them thinks she has lost her influence, Miss
Ferris, and another one who helped a little bit before, can't,
because--I'm that one, Miss Ferris. I unintentionally did something last
term that made Eleanor angry with me. It made her more dissatisfied and
unhappy here too; so when I heard about this I felt as if I was a little
to blame for it, and then I wanted to make up for the other time too.
But of course it is a good deal to ask of you." Betty slid forward on to
the edge of her chair ready to accept a hasty dismissal.

Miss Ferris waited a moment. "I shall be very glad to do it," she said
at last. "I wanted to be sure that I understood the situation and that I
could run a chance of helping Miss Watson. I think I can, but you must
forgive me if I make a bad matter worse. I'll ask her to have tea with
me to-morrow. May I send a note by you?"

"Of course you won't tell her that I spoke to you?" asked Betty
anxiously, when Miss Ferris handed her the note. Miss Ferris promised
and Betty danced out into the night. Half-way home she laughed merrily
all to herself.

"What's the joke?" said a girl suddenly appearing around the corner of
the Main Building.

"It was on me," laughed Betty, "so you can't expect me to tell you what
it was."

It had just occurred to her that, as there was no possibility of
Eleanor's finding out her part in Miss Ferris's intervention, a
reconciliation was as far away as ever. "She wouldn't like it if she
should find out," thought Betty, "and perhaps it was just another
tactless interference. Well, I'm glad I didn't think of all these things
sooner, for I believe it was the right thing to do, and it was a lot
easier doing it while I hoped it might bring us together, as Nan said. I
wonder what kind of things Nan meant."

She dropped the note on the hall table and slipped softly up-stairs. As
she sat down at her desk she looked at the clock and hesitated. It was
not so late as she had thought, only quarter