Early Saturday morning Isabel flew into the suite occupied by Eloise, Helen, Pauline and Juliet. “I’ve something to tell you,” said she. “Your class meeting comes this morning, doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” replied Juliet, “at ten o’clock.”

“Well did you know that some of the girls are planning to put in Myrtle Wiseman for president, and the other girls of that set for all the other offices?”

“What?” Eloise came to the door of the bedroom, her comb in hand, her long, dark hair falling around her shoulders and framing her bright face.

“Margaret told me last night before ‘lights out.’ While we were at our meeting last night, Margaret, I mean Virginia, was in the library reading, and two girls came in and began to talk without paying any attention to her. There was hardly anybody there, she said, on account of all the meetings, and these girls talked in a low tone. They thought she was a new girl and wouldn’t know anybody, I suppose, in our crowd. At first Virginia said that she did not pay any attention, then she caught the names of some of you girls. All she got was that all of your crowd were to be kept from holding any office, and that Myrtle Wiseman was to be president. She remembered that name.”

“Myrtle hates Hilary so, and none of us have been more than polite since she made trouble between Hilary and Lilian last year. She is a trouble-maker, they say. But I wonder that they would put her up for president, because there are stronger girls in that crowd. I wonder who those girls in the library were.”

“Virginia did not know them.”

“I suppose they came in late after some meeting?”

“Probably. I imagine that these are only Myrtle’s special friends and there might be some hope for us that Myrtle might be defeated.”

“Dorothy Appleton would make a good president.”

“She would be too much influenced by Myrtle and the rest, Juliet.”

“O, I don’t know about that, Eloise. Dorothy is pretty independent, especially if anything important comes up. I think Dorothy wants to be fair.”

“Would you mind, Isabel, going over and telling Hilary and the rest, and asking them to come to our suite after breakfast?”

“I’ll go, and I suppose Virginia and Avalon and I are to say nothing about what we heard?”

“If you please for the present. And thank you so much, Isabel, for telling us. We’ll tell you how it all comes out.”

“Did you hear that, Pauline?”

“I’m not sure that I got it all. Myrtle Wiseman for president?”

“Yes. Wouldn’t that be awful!”

“We’ve been too busy with our clubs we’re starting to pay any attention to class doings. But I guess we do not want any offices.”

“No, but we don’t want to be run by people like that, either.”

“Class spirit is rather important sometimes.”

“Yes, I wish we had talked with the other girls more.”

“I just thought that it would be like the usual meetings without any doubt that we could get good officers to represent the class.”

So ran the conversation. After breakfast the other girls came hurrying in. “What shall we do about it? Anything?” was the general query.

“For one thing,” said Eloise, “when they nominate Myrtle one of us can hop right up and nominate some one else.”

“One of our own crowd?”

“Not necessarily, but one not so opposed to us as Myrtle is. She would even work against us, you know.”

“I tell you what I think would be the best thing to do,” said Pauline.

“Hear, hear! Pauline!”

“They would be expecting us to nominate one of our girls and if we pick out a girl outside that everybody likes she would stand a good chance of being elected. They will have to work to get Myrtle in, you know. She is not a popular girl at all.”

“That is a good idea, Pauline,” said Lilian, “and if we could get the best girl in their own crowd they would not know what to do. Do you remember how the great generals always did, Caesar and the rest, plan to divide the enemies’ forces?”

“Well I don’t see that we would make any mistake in putting Dorothy in. She is popular, and independent, and I’m sure she would never stand for anything mean if she knew it, and we’ll see that she knows it if ever anything comes up in the class meetings.”

“Would you or Hilary be willing to nominate Dorothy? It would have more effect if you would, because the girls would immediately think why.”

“O, no, Eloise, please; we want to forget that awful time!”

“Let Pauline do it,” said Cathalina. “Pauline has been here several years and her athletic ‘prowess’ gives her influence.”

“Yes, and I think Pauline could do it without any special feelings being aroused. That would be better,” said Hilary. “We don’t want to split up the class or anything. I don’t hate Myrtle at all. I’m sorry for her, but I wouldn’t want her to run anything I was connected with.”

“Hear our good old Hilary. She is right. Let’s not talk to anybody, but handle it all at the meeting. If we could get one of Dorothy’s chums to second the nomination and give her a little boost, it would be fine. Pick out Julia Merton or pretty little Margaret Brown, Pauline, and sit by her. They are crazy about Dorothy.”

“All right, Eloise,” said Pauline. “I can honestly do my part for Dorothy. I like her very much.”

“Poor Myrtle!” said Hilary.

“Don’t get soft-hearted, Hilary,” admonished Eloise. “If it were just some kind sacrifice you could make for her I wouldn’t say a word, but when it comes to letting a whole class in for trouble it is different!”

“Be on time for the meeting, girls,” was Pauline’s last word, as the girls of Lakeview suite departed.

“Don’t worry. We’ll be there when the meeting is called to order.”

The girls were a little excited, not knowing just what to expect from Myrtle and her friends, but feeling sure that Dorothy would prove more popular and receive a majority of the votes. There was the possibility that more names would be presented, but that did not matter as long as Myrtle were not elected. It turned out better than they had hoped. Myrtle was promptly nominated and the nomination was seconded by a special friend. Pauline rose quickly and nominated Dorothy, who was not present. This made a little stir among the girls and evidently threw confusion into the camp of the enemy, for as Pauline had hoped, Julia Merton, tall and of the studious type, seconded the nomination of Dorothy with great spirit. Dorothy was elected with a large majority, and two sweet girls without “political” attachments were chosen for vice-president and secretary. The danger was past! Isabel and Avalon were coached not to say a word about the matter, and while Myrtle and her friends viewed Pauline and the rest with a bit of suspicion, they finally concluded that it was just the old affair that could of course be counted on to prevent their accepting Myrtle.

“Pauline was terribly prompt in nominating Dorothy,” said Myrtle.

“Yes, but I expected Hilary and Lilian to be on their feet at once,” said her friend who knew something about last year’s difficulty. “I don’t see how they could know anything about our plans.”

That afternoon there was the hoped for trip to the city. Several small parties wanted to go and were put in charge of as many teacher chaperons. Greycliff had a shining new motor ’bus, which took them to the village, and there they caught the early afternoon train for the city.

Isabel had told Lilian about Virginia’s desire to buy some clothes under her oversight and Lilian had run in to see Virginia once or twice to confer. “Better have a list of things we want to get,” she said, “because the city is a dizzy place and I’m always tempted to get something I don’t need.”

“Her check was a nice big one,” Isabel told Lilian. “I think she’d better get her winter fixings, a good coat and a one-piece Sunday dress that she could wear on different occasions, and maybe a skirt that hangs right for school and a pretty sweater.”

“You make a list with her,” said Lilian, “and then I’ll go over it later, and we must think about colors that she ought to wear. Cathalina will be along and her ideas will be good on that.”

Never had Virginia had such a day, from the time when the ’bus with “giggling Greycliff girls,” according to Isabel, started from the school, to the shadowy evening hours when she returned laden with packages, with more to be sent out Monday. She squeezed Isabel’s hand happily, as she sat between her and Avalon and whispered, “Wait till I write to my good old Dad that sent me here where I could know you girls, and sent me that check for clothes.”

“It’s funny about clothes,” said Isabel. “They don’t make your character, of course, but it does seem to have an awful effect on you to have the right things to wear, a sort of support to your—um—moral courage.”

Virginia’s hair was so “scraggly and faded in spots,” as she said, that Lilian had advised her to have it cut nicely while she was in the city, and wear it fluffed about her face, tied on the side with a wide ribbon, as the girls were wearing it then, when their hair was short. This performance so changed her that she insisted on stopping at one of the places of quick photography and having a picture made to send home to her father. “I’ll write under it, ‘This is me, would you know me?’ and tell him that I expect to put something inside of the head, too, before I see him again. He works so hard! O, I can wear my new dress to the Y. W. reception tonight, can’t I?”

“Of course you can,” replied Avalon, “your pretty pumps, too. It’s a good thing we did not want to get much ourselves!”

“Yes. I’m sorry you have had so much trouble for me.”

“O, I did not mean that; it was fun. But as we did not get any big things, we could bring some of yours that you need right away.”

They had wisely not tried to run all round getting things here and there, but had chosen one big department store, which carried good things at all prices, and had taken Virginia from one department to another, shopping for themselves too, till Virginia said she was dizzy with clothes and happiness. And when they were about ready to drop, they met their chaperone at a tea room near, where Virginia sat in silent bliss, eating whatever the other girls suggested, and looking around at the place and people to her heart’s content. They would return too late for the Greycliff meal, but in time for the reception, which was from eight to nine-thirty, probably ten, as the girls thought.

Both Lilian and Isabel came around to assist in Virginia’s toilet. “You can’t make me pretty,” said Virginia, “but I do look nice, and not so different,—and I think that you are the loveliest girls I ever saw or heard of!”

Lilian gave her a bright, sympathetic smile, but told her that she was entirely mistaken as to her character, while Isabel bowed with her hand on her heart and offered her an arm of escort to the parlors.

The “Y. W.” reception was like most receptions for the purpose of having the girls meet each other. There was a receiving line of girls and faculty. Then a committee was on hand to take the girls to a table where they were tagged with their own names. The old girls were told to make themselves useful in introducing themselves and others to the new girls, but the new girls received special attention. At a pretty table, covered with white linen, flowers, and sparkling glasses, lemonade was ladled out of a cut-glass punch bowl, and served with wafers. The faculty were cordial and wore their company apparel, doing their best to meet the girls naturally on a social footing, to forget class work and to remember names. Fortunately, the scheme of having names pinned on prevented many mistakes on the part of both faculty and girls.

“Were your slippers comfortable?” asked Avalon of Virginia on the way upstairs.

“Not very, but they will be when they are not so new,” Virginia replied hopefully.

“Your name is ‘Hope,’” Isabel reminded her. “Well this has been a week! But I’ve had a great time. Is your roommate coming next week?”

“I think so, but I dread it a little.”

“It will be a lot better for you to be with somebody. It’s too lonesome by yourself, especially when you’re new.”

“I can’t like anybody as well as you and Avalon.”

“Don’t say that,—who knows?”