!"

All the girls had now gathered about the stranger whom their leader
was so unceremoniously quizzing and were eagerly inspecting her, but
somehow Dorothy did not resent the scrutiny. There were big girls and
little ones, fat girls and thin ones, plain and pretty, but each so
good-natured looking and so friendly in her curiosity that Dolly's own
spirits rose in response to their liveliness.

"No, indeed! I'm just a plain American girl and prouder of that than
of any title in the world. You see, all of _us_ are queens in our own
right!" answered the newcomer, promptly.

"Well, come on then; you belong to us and we all belong to the queen.
Queen, what shall we call you? Where do you hail from?"

"My home is in Baltimore, and my name is Dorothy Calvert."

"Then you must be a sort of 'Peer' after all. I hate history, but I
remember about that, for Lord Baltimore and Calvert are the same
thing, I fancy. I'm sorry. I hoped you belonged to our 'set' and
weren't an aristocrat."

"But I'm not, I'm not!" protested Dorothy. "I do belong to you, I want
to because you look so friendly and I need friends dreadfully. I'm so
lonely, or I was. I've just come, you know."

"Have you been 'inquisitioned' yet?"

"I don't understand."

The questioner explained, and Dorothy exclaimed:

"Oh! I think that's cruel! Miss Hexam is perfectly lovely!"

"So do we think, course, and she doesn't mind the nickname. It was
first given her by a silly Seventh Form girl who thought she was all
ready for the University yet failed to pass even a Fifth Form exam. I
guess you'll not be put to study to-day, so best come over to the gym
with us. What stunts can you do?"

"None. But I've told you my name and you haven't told yours. Thank
you, though, for asking me. I'm so glad to go."

"Oh! you poor little lonesome Queen Baltimore! I'm Winifred Christie;
this freckle face is Fannie Dimock; Annie Dow wears that blue bow in
her hair; Florita Sheraton is the fat one; Ernesta Smith the thin;
Bessie Walters--well, no need to point out Bessie. She's the nimblest
girl in the gym. We here extend the freedom of the Lower House; and
all in favor of grabbing this Yankee into our set before the other set
catches her, say--Aye!"

"Aye--aye--aye!" endorsed the motion and Dorothy clapped her hands
over her ears, to keep out the ear-splitting shouts. How these girls
dared make such an uproar amazed her; but she did not yet know that in
the "long recess," now p