, the instructor in
mathematics, was on the point of closing the door as she hurriedly
approached. She smiled as she saw the pretty sophomore, and continued to
hold the door open until Marjorie had crossed the threshold. The latter
gave an eager glance about the room. The classrooms were provided with
rows of single desks similar to those in the study hall. Mary was
occupying one of them well toward the front of the room. Directly ahead
of her sat the French girl. On one of the back seats was Jerry Macy,
glaring in her most savage manner, her angry eyes fixed on the black,
curly head of the girl she despised.

There was no vacant seat near Mary. Marjorie noted all these facts in
that one comprehensive glance. It also seemed to her that the French
girl's face wore an expression of mocking triumph. And was it her
imagination, or had Mary glanced up as she entered and then turned away
her eyes? What did it all mean? Marjorie took the nearest vacant seat at
hand, the prey of many emotions. Then, as Miss Nelson stepped forward to
address the class, she resolutely put away all personal matters and,
with the fine attention to the business of study which had endeared her
to her various teachers during her freshman year, she strove to center
her troubled mind on what Miss Nelson was saying.

After a short preliminary talk on the importance of the study the class
was about to begin, Miss Nelson proceeded to the business of registering
her pupils and giving out the text books. Miss Nelson laid particular
stress on the thorough learning of all definitions pertaining to the
study in hand. "You must know these definitions so well that you could
say them backward if I requested it," she emphasized. "They will be of
greatest importance in your work to come." Then she heartlessly gave out
several pages of them for the advance lesson. The rest of the period she
spent in going over and explaining these same definitions in her usual
thorough manner, ending with the stern injunction that she expected a
letter-perfect recitation on the following morning.

"Miss Nelson doesn't want much," grumbled Jerry Macy in Irma Linton's
ear, as they filed out of class at the ringing of the bell which ended
the period. Then, before Irma had time to reply, she continued: "_What_
do you think of Mignon? Isn't it a shame she's back again? And did you
see her march in here with Mary Raymond? It's a pretty sure thing that
neither of them knows who is who in