r account. Certainly,
the irresolute manner that marked everything Ruth did, as a rule, had
quite deserted her as she filed past the triumvirate with her little band.

'Why,' exclaimed Angela, audibly, 'I never knew Ruth Oliver was pretty
before!'

'She isn't, is she?' said Jean, just as loudly.

'Of course she is!' declared Babs, warmly. 'She's _beautiful_, and--and
classic!'

The others laughed, and she wondered why. Somebody had said, only the
other day, that Jill Urquhart had classic features; and how was she to
know that, although she was every bit as fond of Ruth as of Jill, the
same adjective would not do for both?

'Look at Margaret Hulme,' whispered Mary Wells, as the vaulting-horse
section marched past them. 'She's quite white!'

The little remark was enough to set them all wondering afresh; and
Barbara, moved by a sudden impulse, darted up to Ruth Oliver.

'_Did_ Margaret go wrong in the wands?' asked the child, in an anxious
whisper.

The smile that had made Ruth look so surprisingly pretty died out of her
face, and she glanced gravely down at her little questioner.

'Never mind, baby,' she said gently. 'Go back to your place.' And she came
as near snubbing any one then as she ever did in the whole of her school
career.

A burst of applause put every one in the anteroom once more on the alert.

'What is it?' passed eagerly from one to another. The answer, given by
Charlotte from her point of vantage near the doorway, was soon circulated.
Margaret Hulme had easily surpassed her seven companions by a brilliant
performance on the vaulting-horse; and the spirits of the anteroom went
up with a bound. Hurly-Burly had mounted the platform at the farther end
of the gymnasium, and was comparing notes with Miss Finlayson and the
expert from the London training-college, who was acting as one of the
judges; so there was no one to restrain both senior and junior divisions
from falling out of rank and pressing round the head girl, as she once
more marched back to them. They had never once made so much fuss over
their idol as they did now that she had shown, for the first time, that
even idols are capable of failure.

Hurly-Burly returned and restored order in a stern voice; and they saw
Finny standing in the middle of the platform, waiting for Scales to bring
the _Erlkoenig_ to a thundering close. The next moment she was speaking in
that low voice of hers that went straight to the ears of every one in the
r