the time if I didn't.
Mother would think it all right, of course. She would not mind if Ruth
dressed in calico and never said anything but yes and no. But how the
boys would laugh! I simply won't do it, conscience or no conscience."

In view of this decision it was rather strange that the next morning,
Carol Golden went down to Ruth Mannering's lonely little room on
Corridor Two and said, "Ruth, will you go home with me for the
holidays? Mother wrote me to invite anyone I wished to. Don't say you
can't come, dear, because you must."

Carol never, as long as she lived, forgot Ruth's face at that moment.

"It was absolutely transfigured," she said afterwards. "I never saw
anyone look so happy in my life."

* * * * *

A fortnight later unwonted silence reigned at Oaklawn. The girls were
scattered far and wide, and Ruth Mannering and Carol Golden were at
the latter's home.

Carol was a very much surprised girl. Under the influence of kindness
and pleasure Ruth seemed transformed into a different person. Her
shyness and reserve melted away in the sunny atmosphere of the Golden
home. Mrs. Golden took her into her motherly heart at once; and as for
Frank and Jack, whose verdict Carol had so dreaded, they voted Ruth
"splendid." She certainly got along very well with them; and if she
did not make the social sensation that pretty Maud Russell might have
made, the Goldens all liked her and Carol was content.

"Just four days more," sighed Carol one afternoon, "and then we must
go back to Oaklawn. Can you realize it, Ruth?"

Ruth looked up from her book with a smile. Even in appearance she had
changed. There was a faint pink in her cheeks and a merry light in her
eyes.

"I shall not be sorry to go back to work," she said. "I feel just like
it because I have had so pleasant a time here that it has heartened me
up for next term. I think it will be very different from last. I begin
to see that I kept to myself too much and brooded over fancied
slights."

"And then you are to room with me since Maud is not coming back," said
Carol. "What fun we shall have. Did you ever toast marshmallows over
the gas? Why, I declare, there is Mr. Swift coming up the walk. Look,
Ruth! He is the richest man in Westleigh."

Ruth peeped out of the window over Carol's shoulder.

"He reminds me of somebody," she said absently, "but I can't think who
it is. Of course, I have never seen him before. What a good fac