leasantly impressed by
a young man as she had been by him. He was wholesome, clear-eyed and
unaffected.

Debby Alden recognized these virtues in him and received him at once
into her home and friendship. She liked his college talk; his bright way
of making his smile and voice put his words at fault. Yet, while he
entertained her she was not wholly unconscious of two things--that
Hester was not herself, and that the resemblance between the two girls
was not the result of mere chance. Suddenly she turned to Helen with the
question:

"Have you any sisters? Did you ever have any?"

"No, unfortunately, I am an only child," was the reply.

"Which may account for any peculiar little traits of character or
manner," said Robert Vail. "Only a brother or sister is able to 'comb
one' thoroughly smooth. They trim the plant of self-esteem; they nip the
bud of selfishness before it can bloom; they serve their purpose,
nuisances though they are--these brothers and sisters."

"How unfortunate that you never had any. You might have been--" Helen
left the sentence unfinished, implying by her tone that he might have
been all that he was not.

"But you served the same purpose, cousin. You have never failed in your
duty toward me. You are worth a dozen brothers and sisters when it comes
to 'combing one down.'" They laughed at the sally and might have carried
it further had not Miss Alden led the way to the lunch table.

CHAPTER X

Hester Alden barely escaped being campused for dancing her way through
the main hall and shrieking in wild excess of spirits. To add to the
enormity of the offense, the day on which this had occurred was the day
when the ice-cream wagon came in from Flemington and disposed of its
wares at the front entrance of the campus. At the time of her exhibition
of high spirits, Hester had held high in her hand a paper butter-dish
filled with cream, which had melted and was trickling over the edge of
the dish and down her sleeve. The German teacher had heard the unusual
commotion and appeared on the scene.

"Ach, Fraulein Alden, what matters it by you? To your room go you at
once. To Miss Burkham, I such conduct shall report."

Hester in the exuberance of spirit, hugged the little German lady who
was as fat as a dumpling. "Fraulein Franz, you are a dear old soul if
you do get your English verbs confused. You would dance and laugh and
spill your ice-cream too, if you were to play on the scrub team."

"Gra