though only
sixteen, she was the one girl in the school who could hold Miss Woodhull
within the limits of absolute courtesy under _all_ circumstances.
Although descended from New England's finest stock, Miss Woodhull also
possessed her full share of the New Englander's nervous irritability
which all the good breeding and discipline ever brought to bear can never
wholly eradicate. Her sarcasm and irony had caused more than one girl's
cheeks to grow crimson and her blood to boil under their stinging
injustice, for Miss Woodhull did not invariably get to the root of
things. She was a trifle superior to minor details. But Aileen possessed
an armor to combat just such a temperament and her companion, Sally
Conant's wits were sharp enough to get out of most of the scrapes into
which she led her friend. So the pair were a very fair foil to each other
and a match for Miss Woodhull. What their ability would prove augmented
by Beverly's characteristics we will learn later.

As they came down the steps from Miss Woodhull's office, said office,
by-the-by, being in the wing in which the recitation rooms were situated
and quite separate from the main building, Sally's eyes were snapping,
and her head wagging ominously; Aileen's cheeks were even a deeper tint
than they ordinarily were, and her head was held a little higher.
Evidently something of a disturbing nature had taken place. They did not
see Beverly in her bosky nook and she did not feel called upon to reveal
herself to them.

"It was all very well to stick _three_ of us together when we were
freshmen and sophomores, but juniors deserve _some_ consideration I
think. If Peggy Westfield had come back this year it would have been all
well and good, but to put a perfect stranger in that room is a pure and
simple outrage. Why we haven't even an idea what she's like, or whether
she'll be congenial, or nice, or--or--anything. Why couldn't she have
given us one of the girls we know?" stormed Sally.

"Because she likes to prove that she is great and we are small, I dare
say," answered Aileen. "Of course the new girl may be perfectly lovely
and maybe we'll get to like her a lot, but it's the _principle_ of the
thing which enrages me. It seems to me we might have some voice in the
choice of a room-mate after being in the school three years. There are a
dozen in our class from which we could choose the third girl if we've got
to have her, though I don't see why just you and I couldn't h