ad selected a hard one, with a good
deal of outside reading in English. Then there was her music, vocal and
instrumental. Practising took up a great deal of time.

The teacher of piano--Fraulein Schirmer--was very nice, Blue Bonnet
thought, and she was glad to tell her aunt that she liked her, since she
and Fraulein had been such good friends in Munich.

Because of Miss Clyde, Fraulein took much interest in Blue Bonnet,
discovering a good deal of musical ability, she wrote Miss Clyde.

Mrs. White still continued to be the joy she promised, and Blue Bonnet
looked forward to her vocal lessons with the keenest pleasure.

"Will I ever sing really well?" she asked Mrs. White one morning, and
Mrs. White had answered:

"That depends upon yourself, and how much you want to sing. You have a
good voice, plenty of excellent timbre in it. You have even more--the
greatest essential of all--temperament. You live--you feel--you have the
sympathetic quality that spells success--with work!"

Blue Bonnet went from her lesson feeling that she had the world almost
in her grasp.

Her English teacher, too, Professor Howe--- Blue Bonnet could not
understand why a woman should be called Professor--was delightful. A
storehouse of knowledge, she made the class work so interesting that the
forty-five minutes of recitation usually passed all too quickly.

Professor Howe was an unusually able woman, much looked up to by the
Faculty and pupils. She was middle-aged--past the fortieth milestone, at
any rate--and somewhat austere in manner. Those who knew her best
declared that her stern demeanor was a professional veneer, put on in
the classroom for the sake of discipline, and that underneath she was
intensely human and feminine. She had charge of the study hall and acted
as associate principal.

Professor Howe interested Blue Bonnet. She didn't mind the austere
manner at all. There was something behind it--a quick flash of the eye,
a sudden smile, limited usually to a brief second; an intense, keen
expression that acted like an electric battery to Blue Bonnet. It
stimulated her to effort. No matter what else had to be neglected,
English was invariably prepared.

And, as admiration usually begets admiration, Professor Howe was
attracted to Blue Bonnet.

"Miss Elizabeth Ashe," she said to Miss North at the end of the second
week, "promises to be a bright pupil. She has an unusually clear mind,
and good judgment. She's going to be quite a s