have been! Betty caught herself suddenly. It wasn't settled yet.
Then she got up from her seat with quick determination. "I'll stop in
and see Miss Ferris for just a minute, and then I shall go back and tell
Miss Stuart right off, for I must finish packing to-night, whatever
happens."

Miss Ferris was in, and she and her darkened, flower-scented room wore
an air of coolness and settled repose that was a poignant relief after
the glaring sunshine outside and the confusion of "last days."

"So you go to-morrow," said Miss Ferris pleasantly. "I don't get off
till next week, of course. Are you satisfied?"

"Satisfied?" repeated Betty. She had heard of Miss Ferris's habit of
flashing irrelevant questions at her puzzled auditors, but this was her
first experience of it.

"With your first year at Harding," explained Miss Ferris.

"Oh!" said Betty, relieved that it was no worse. "Why, y-es--no, I'm
not. I've had a splendid time, but I haven't accomplished half that I
ought. Next year I'm going to work harder from the very beginning,
and----" Betty stopped abruptly, realizing that all this could not
possibly interest Miss Ferris.

"And what?"

"I didn't want to bore you," apologized Betty. "Why, I'm going to try
to--I don't know how to say it--try not scatter my thoughts so. Nan says
that I am so awfully interested in every one's else business that I
haven't any business of my own."

"I see," said Miss Ferris musingly. "That's quite a possible point of
view. Still, I'm inclined to think that on the whole we have just as
much orange left and it tastes far better, if we give a good deal of it
away. If we try to hang on to it all, it's likely to spoil in the pantry
before we get around to squeeze it dry."

Betty looked puzzled again.

"You don't like figures of speech, do you?" said Miss Ferris. "You must
learn to like them next year. What I mean is that it seems to me far
better in the long run to be interested in too many people than not to
be interested in people enough. Of course, though, we mustn't neglect to
be sufficiently interested in ourselves; and how to divide ourselves
fairly between ourselves and the rest of the world is the hardest
question we ever have to answer. You'll be getting new ideas about it
all through your course--and all through your life."

There was a moment of silence, and then Betty rose to go. "I have to
pack and I know you are busy. Miss Ferris, I'm going to be at the Belden
next year