ad--too."

There was a longer silence this time, and then it was Sue who put her
arm through Blue Bonnet's shyly.

"I know what it means," she said. "I have lost my mother, too. I still
have my father, though, thank Heaven, and Billy. You must know
Billy--he's my brother at Harvard--the best ever--why--"

Annabel lifted her hands in protest.

"Now, Sue's going to take the pulpit," she said, "and we'll get a
discourse on Billy! Billy the great! Billy the supreme--Billy--"

Ruth gave Annabel a push.

"You're jealous," she said, "because you haven't got such a brother
yourself. Billy's all right. He's everything Sue says he is."

In the midst of the banter that followed, the door opened, and Joy Cross
entered.

She put her suitcase down by the bed, and nodded to the girls
indifferently. They nodded back and went on with the inspection of Blue
Bonnet's wardrobe.

Blue Bonnet put the miniature carefully away in the bureau drawer, and,
with that instinct of politeness which is inborn, went over to Joy and
extended her hand.

Joy took it listlessly. The girls scarcely turned round.

When the clothes had all been put away, Annabel renewed her invitation
to tea. She did not include Joy, and Blue Bonnet felt rather indignant.
It seemed so rude.

"You girls certainly have it in for my room-mate," she said, as she
closed the door, and a wave of sympathy went back to Joy.

Ruth Biddle shrugged her shoulders and made a grimace.

"She isn't in our crowd," she said, as if that excluded her from the
right to exist--almost.

Annabel's room was a good deal like Annabel. It inclined to frills. It
was furnished charmingly in cretonnes--pink, with roses and trailing
vines. Pennants from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, and many other
colleges adorned the walls. Everything in view--and there was
much--expressed Annabel. Ruth's personality--if she had any--was
entirely missing.

Annabel shook up a cushion and tucked it behind Blue Bonnet comfortably.
She had a hospitable manner that fitted pleasantly with the cosiness of
the room. Blue Bonnet looked about admiringly.

"I didn't know they allowed you to have so much in your room," she said,
surprised.

"They don't--ordinarily. I've been here a long time, and things
accumulate. Anyway, I told Miss North that if I couldn't have things the
way I wanted them this year, I'd go somewhere else. They'll do a good
deal to keep you after they once get you. You'll soon find that