ys it
wouldn't be showing proper respect not to. But it's such a comfort to be
able to call her Betty behind the scenes. She came yesterday. Last night
she was up in my room for more than an hour with me, talking about the
places and people we both know in the valley. It made me so happy I
could hardly go to sleep. Elise Walton came with her, Kitty's sister,
you know."

"Oh, is she as bright and funny as Kitty?" demanded Dorene. "If she is
we certainly shall lay siege to you two for our sorority. We ought to
have first claim, for all the other Lloydsboro Valley girls belong to
us. Come over and see Cornie."

Conscious that as a friend of the Valley girls she had gone up many
degrees in Dorene's estimation, Mary put away her scissors and
plaster-case, and followed her newfound acquaintance across the hall.
Her cordial reception gave her what she had been longing for all
morning, the sense of being in intimate touch with things in the inner
circle of school life. Because she knew Lloyd and Betty so well, they
took her in as one of themselves, gave her a seat on a suit-case, the
chairs all being full, and climbed over her and around her as they went
on with their unpacking. Mary was in her element, and blossomed out into
such an interesting visitor, that Dorene was glad that she had
discovered her. This was the beginning of the fourth year that she and
Cornie had roomed together, and to Mary their companionship seemed
ideal.

"I hope my room-mate will prove as congenial as you two," she said,
after listening half an hour to their laughing repartee and their
ridiculous discussions as to the arrangement of their pictures and
bric-a-brac. "I've been looking forward all morning to her coming. Every
time I think of her I have the same excited, creepy feeling that I used
to have when I opened a prize pop-corn box. My little brother and I used
to save all our pennies for them when we were little tots back in
Kansas. We didn't eat the pop-corn, that is _I_ didn't. It was the
flutter and thrill I wanted, that comes when you've almost reached the
bottom of the box, and know the next grab will bring the prize into your
fingers. I was always hoping I might find one of those little rings with
a red setting that I could pretend was a real garnet. No matter if it
did always turn out to be nothing but a toy soldier or a tin whistle,
there was always some kind of a surprise, and that delicious uncertain
creepy feeling first."

"Well,