emarked Jessie. "She's
just like a caged animal. I never saw anything to equal her. I went over
there this afternoon and she was packing. She almost pitched me out of
the room. Of course, it's very luxurious at Beta Phi House, but her
little room here isn't to be scorned. It's really quite pretty, with
lovely paper and matting and chintz curtains and wicker chairs."

Suddenly a wave of indignation swept over Molly. Nobody had ever seen
her look as she looked now, burning spots of color on her cheeks and her
eyes black.

"What right has she--how dare she--she should be thankful--" she burst
out incoherently. Then she stamped both feet up and down like an angry
child and flung herself face down on the couch in an agony of tears. It
was a kind of mental tempest, resembling one of those sudden storms
which come with a flash of lightning, a roaring crash of thunder and
then a downpour of rain.

"Why, Mary Carmichael Washington Brown," exclaimed Judy, kneeling beside
poor Molly, "whatever has come over you?"

Little Otoyo was so frightened that she hid behind a Japanese screen,
while the other girls sat dumb with amazement.

The Williams girls were intensely interested, and Margaret, always
consistent and logical in her decisions, knew very well that there was
something serious back of it.

"Please forgive me," said Molly presently, wiping her eyes and sitting
up as limp as a rag. "I'm awfully sorry to have spoiled the evening like
this. I didn't mean it. It just slipped out of me before I knew it was
coming."

"Why, you old sweetness," exclaimed the affectionate Judy, "of course,
you are forgiven. I guess you ought to be allowed a few outbursts. But
what caused it?"

"I think it was nervousness," answered Molly evasively.

But the girls began to realize that it was not entirely nervousness. It
occurred to them now that Molly had been preoccupied and strangely
silent for some time. Occasionally she gave way to forced gaiety. Twice
she had started on walks, changed her mind and come back, without giving
any excuse except that she was a little tired. It was, in fact, a
condition that had come about so gradually that they were hardly aware
they had noticed it until this sudden breakdown.

"She's dead tired and ought to get to bed this minute," remarked Nance,
caressing her friend's hand.

"Dearest Molly," said Jessie, who was moved by a gentle sympathy always
for those in trouble, "go to bed and get a good rest. It