gh. Well, 'murder will out,' as the
saying goes."

"You said the paper began, 'We, the undersigned'?" questioned Jane in a
clear, hard voice. "How many names were signed to it?"

"I can't say positively." Freda looked distressed. "You see, it made me
so disgusted that I handed it back the instant I had read it. The girl
offered it to my chums, too, but they wouldn't look at it. She said
that nearly all the members of the class had signed it. I know better. I
believe not half the class had signed."

"Would you object to telling us the name of the girl who brought you the
paper to sign?" steadily pursued Jane.

"I wouldn't object; no. Why should I? A girl like that deserves no
clemency," Freda returned spiritedly. "The trouble is, I don't know her
name. She is small and dark, with sharp black eyes and a pointed chin.
She's very homely, but dresses beautifully. She----"

"Thank you. We know who she is," interrupted Judith. "Her name is Elsie
Noble, and she lives at Madison Hall."

"Ah, but she is the hateful one," sputtered Adrienne. "It was most kind
in you, Miss Marsh, and your friends also, to thus refuse to sign this
hideously untruthful paper. We have done this girl no harm. Rather, it
is she who would harm us because we have respected our own rights."

"I suspected it to be a case of spite work," asserted Freda. "It is not
usual for a class in college to adopt such harsh measures."

"We were rather surprised at her coming to us with the paper," put in
Kathie. "We've seen her with a crowd of girls who don't appear to know
that we are on the map. She said she understood that you girls were
going to invite us to the dance and felt it her duty to call on us and
object to our accepting your invitations."

"But how could she possibly know that?" cried out Ethel Lacey. "No one
except the five of us knew it until Norma told you this morning."

"I hope you don't think----" began Freda.

A hurt look had crept into her soft, brown eyes.

"How could we possibly think such a thing?" cut in Jane assuringly. "We
can readily understand that Miss Noble's call must have been a complete
surprise to you. On the contrary, we are very grateful to you and your
friends for not signing the paper."

"Yes, indeed," nodded Judith. "Frankly, we suspected that something
unpleasant was in the wind. When first we heard about the dance, we each
invited freshmen whom we knew. Every one of them turned us down. We
didn't think anything o