evelation to the others, too. William was not looking pleased, but the
other boy was looking at her.

Something made Miss MacLauren feel daring. She looked up--suddenly--at
the other boy--square. To be sure, she looked down quicker, that part
being involuntary, as well as the blush that followed. The blush was
disconcerting, but the sensation, on the whole, was pleasurable.

At the High School gate, Miss MacLauren raised her eyes again. The
lowering and the blush could be counted on; the only hard part was to
get them raised.

She was blushing as she turned to go in, she was laughing, too, to hide
the blush. And this was the Elixir of which Rosalie drank; it mounted to
the brain. Intuitively, Miss MacLauren knew, if she could, she would
drink of it again. She looked backward over her shoulder; the boy was
looking backward, too. Hattie had said that Rosalie was frivolous, that
her head was turned; no wonder her head was turned.

The next Friday, the three newly elect mounted the stairs to the
Platonian doorway.

Lofty altitudes are expected to be chilly, and the elevation of the
mansard was as nothing to the mental heights upon which Platonia was
established. Platonian welcome had an added chilliness, besides, by
reason of its formality.

The new members hastily found seats.

On a platform sat Minerva, enthroned; no wonder, for she was a Senior as
well as a President. The lesser lights, on either side, it developed,
were Secretary and Treasurer; they looked coldly important. The other
Platonians sat around.

The Society was asked to come to order. The Society came to order. There
was no settling, and re-settling and rustling, and tardy subsidal, as in
the class-room, perhaps because the young ladies, in this case, wanted
the order.

It went on, though Miss MacLauren was conscious that, for her part, she
comprehended very little of what it was all about, though it sounded
impressive. You called it Parliamentary Ruling. To an outsider, this
seemed almost to mean the longest way round to an end that everybody had
seen from the beginning. Parliamentary Ruling also seemed apt to lead
its followers into paths unexpected even by them, from which they did
not know how to get out, and it also led to revelations humiliating to
new members.

The report of the Treasurer was called for.

It showed a deficit.

"Even with the initiation fees and dues from new members?" asked the
President.

Even so.

"Then," said th