o brunettes in the twinkling of an eye?" laughed
Leila, her blue eyes resting very kindly on Marjorie's pretty companion.

"They do not. Miss Walbert deserted me. She knew Miss Myers and Miss
Stephens. She went with them." Marjorie made the explanation in a calm,
level voice which did not invite present questioning.

"Then we can't count her in with this select aggregation," Vera said
dryly. "Helen's gone, too, but her going was legitimate."

"Ah, well. We have gained one and lost one. Let us run off with our gain
before someone happens along and coaxes her away from us. Might we not
know her by name?" Leila turned to Marjorie with a wide ingratiating
smile. The stranger was already regarding Leila with open amusement.

"You shall know her by name at once. You don't have to remind me to
introduce her," retorted Marjorie. "I'll present you to her first of
all. Miss Impatience, I mean Miss Harper, this is Miss Severn, of
Baltimore." Marjorie again went through the ceremony of introduction,
this time with smiles and whole-heartedness.

"We are thirteen in number, but who cares?" Leila announced. "Seven to
one and six to the other car, Midget. As we aren't in the jitney
business we won't come to blows over the one extra fare."

While they were disposing themselves in the two automobiles for the ride
to Hamilton College, the sound of high-pitched voices announced the
arrival on the scene of the Sans. Three of the juniors who had elected
to meet them had driven their own cars to the station. Thus the
illustrious Sans did not have to depend on the station's taxicabs.

While Leila would have liked to drive off in a hurry rather than
encounter at such close range the girls she so heartily despised, she
moved, instead, with the utmost deliberation. She was just climbing into
the driver's seat when the small but noisy procession of young women
came opposite to her car. Vera sat ready to start, her slender hands
resting idly on the wheel as she waited for Leila's signal. The
occupants of both cars, save for the freshman from Baltimore, were
making a commendable effort to appear impersonal. Miss Severn, of
Baltimore, was innocently interested in the newcomers from the fact that
they were also students of Hamilton College.

Aside from considerable laughter, which sounded too pointed to be
impersonal, the party of arriving juniors strolled past. Among the last
came Leslie Cairns. She had insisted on walking with Elizabeth Walbe