igned A 10. And from your conversation, which I couldn't very
well help overhearing, you two seem to have been assigned B and C for
study 10. But I've just given vent to my point of view."

There was still a good bit of electricity in the atmosphere, but it must
be admitted that for the past eighteen hours Beverly had been pretty
steadily brushed the wrong way, and it was an entirely new experience for
her. Add to this a good dose of homesickness and a sense of utter loss at
her separation from Athol, and her present frame of mind is not difficult
to understand.

"Are you Beverly _Ashby_ of Woodbine?" persisted Sally, while Aileen
dropped down upon the seat beside Sally to listen.

"Yes," was the laconic if uncompromising reply.

"Well that's the best news I've heard since I left Richmond, and I'm just
tickled nearly to death!" exclaimed Sally, spinning about to hug Aileen
rapturously. This sudden change of base was so astonishing that Beverly's
sense of humor came to her rescue and she laughed.

Sally again pivoted toward her crying:

"Why I know you perfectly well! I've known you all my life! And you know
me just as well as I know you. Don't you know you do?"

"Not so that it overwhelms me," laughed Beverly.

"Where did you meet Miss Ashby?" asked Aileen who felt it was about time
she came in for this wholesale discovery of "auld acquaintance."

"Oh, I beg your pardon. This is Aileen Norman, the third girl for suite
10. She's from Charlottesville and ought to know your family too. I
reckon you know hers. Everybody does. Just like they know yours. Why your
mother and mine went to Catonsville to school together. Didn't you know
that? She was Sarah Wirt then. Why I think it's too lovely for words! And
we were just as mad as fury when we started out to hunt up the new girl
we had to room with this year and here you aren't a new girl at all but
one we've always known. Why I'm so tickled I'm foolish. Hug me Aileen or
it will all seem like a dream and I'll wake up and find we've got to
roost with someone like that stupid Electra Sanderson, or Petty Gordon,
who can't do a thing but talk about that midshipman at Annapolis to whom
she says she's engaged, and she's only just seventeen. She makes me
tired."

"I hope you'll forgive us for all we said as we came down the walk. We
certainly had no personal feeling as you must understand, but we were
pretty well stirred up over the idea of having to begin junior year with