n surprised had she looked back into the
"inquisition chamber" a few moments later to see the "inquisitor"
arouse, seize a sheet of paper and rapidly write a few lines upon it.
But the few lines were important. They gave a synopsis of Dorothy's
scholarship and accomplishments, and unerringly assigned her to "Form
IVb, class of Miss Aldrich."

The "terrible exam" was over and Dorothy hadn't known a thing about
it!

Outside that little parlor another surprise awaited her. A crowd of
girls was racing madly down the hall, the foremost looking backward as
she ran and roughly colliding with Dorothy; with the result that both
fell; while the others, following in such speed, were unable to check
in time to prevent their tumbling over the first pair. Then such
shrieks of laughter rang out that the teachers in the nearby
classrooms came to their doors in haste.

Even they were obliged to smile over the heap of girls and the tangle
of legs and arms as the fallen ones strove to extricate themselves.
They were all in gymnasium-costume and were bound for a side door of
the building which led by a short cut to the gymnasium in the Annex.

This was Dorothy's introduction to the "Commons," the largest and
wildest "set" in the great school. They were all daughters of good
families but of no "rank" or titles; and there was an abiding
opposition among them to the "Peers," the smaller "set" of aristocrats
to which the Honorable Gwendolyn Borst-Kennard and Lady Marjorie
Lancaster belonged. Mostly the "Commons" were a rollicking company,
going to the extreme limits of behavior where any fun promised to
follow, yet mostly keeping just safely within rules. Their escapades
kept the faculty in considerable anxiety as to what they would do
next, yet their very gayety was the life of Oak Knowe and even the
Lady Principal was secretly fonder of them than of the more dignified
"Peers."

As they now scrambled to their feet, she who had run against Dorothy
heartily apologized, yet paused half-way in that apology to stare and
remark:

"Why, heigho, there! I thought you were a Minim, you're so little.
But I fancy you're a newcomer whom I don't know. Please explain; are
you 'Peer' or 'Lower House'?"

Dorothy laughed:

"'Lower House,' I thought when you knocked me down, whatever that may
be."

"It means--is your father an Earl? or your mother a Duchess? Have you
an Honorable amongst you? You hold your curly head as if you might
have all three