?
Leslie afterwards searched her heart, and felt that she could truly
say that her strongest motive in compelling this confession had been
to get the burden of the knowledge of it off her own shrinking soul.

"Tell the rest!" came the relentless voice of Leslie, and Myrtle
struggled on.

"Well, I'm engaged to Mr. Bartram Laws; and my guardian won't let us
get married till I'm through college, and we fixed it up to get
married to-day quietly. I knew it would be all right after he found
out he couldn't help himself, and so----"

"Tell how you asked the boys to get in the car!" ordered the fierce
voice again; and Myrtle, recalled from another attempt to pass it all
off pleasantly, went step by step through the whole shameful story
until it was complete.

Then Leslie with a sudden motion of finality flung the little weapon
down upon the mahogany table, and dashed into Julia Cloud's arms in a
storm of tears. "O Cloudy, I'll never, never do any such thing again!
And I hate her! I _hate_ her! I'll never forgive her! Can you ever
forgive _me_?"

No one had heard a sudden, startled exclamation from the porch room as
Leslie and Myrtle came into the house; but now Myrtle suddenly looked
up, thinking the time had come for her to steal away unseen; and there
in the two doorways that opened on either side of the fireplace stood,
on one side Allison Cloud and the dean of the college, and on the
other side two members of the student executive body, all looking
straight at her! Moreover, she read it in their eyes that they had
heard every word of her confession. Without a word she dropped white
and stricken into a chair, and covered her face with her hands. For
once her brazen wiles were gone.

CHAPTER XXIII

It happened that Miss Myrtle Villers had not confined her affections
to Mr. Bartram Laws. She had been seen wandering about the campus with
other youths at odd hours of the evening when young-lady students were
supposed to be safely within college halls or properly chaperoned at
some public gathering. The "student exec" had had her in tow for
several weeks, and she had already received a number of reproofs and
warnings. A daring escapade the evening before had brought matters to
a head, and it was very possibly because of some suspicion that they
might have found her out that Myrtle had made her plans to be absent
on that afternoon. However that was, when the executive body in
consultation with the dean sent for h