A week, crowded with new and delightful experiences, had passed since Adele Doring and her friends had arrived at Linden Hall Seminary. The girls from Sunnyside were well started in their classes and having resolved to study earnestly, they spent much of their time with their books, but of course there were the recreation hours and the free time, and long rambles accompanied by the youngest teacher, Miss Merritt, and horseback rides down the beautiful wood roads with the riding-master, Mr. Haley.

One day when the girls were leaving their classes, Janet Nagel met them in the corridor and told them that Madame Deriby wished them to remain in the library for a while and come to her office one by one as their names would be called.

What could it mean? Had they broken any of the rules they wondered as they filed into the large quiet room which happened to be unoccupied. Before they could discuss the matter, Madame Deriby’s door opened and Bertha Angel was called.

Little Betty Burd clutched Adele and whispered, “Oh, Della, do you suppose Madame Deriby would mind very much if I went in with you? I’m scared to go alone!”

“Scared of what, Little One?” Adele asked merrily. “Madame Deriby is not a witch! She is as kind and motherly as she can be.”

Five minutes passed and Bertha came out of the office smiling as though her visit had been a pleasant one.

“Doris, you are to go in next,” she said.

When the door had closed behind Doris, Betty seized Bertha and whispered:

“What happened to you in there, Burdie? Were you scared?”

“Of course not,” Bertha declared. “Madame Deriby just wanted to know which courses I preferred taking and if I cared to study music and languages.”

“I suppose you told her that you would like to study Chinese and Greek,” the little girl said.

Bertha laughed gaily.

“No, Bettykins,” she replied, “your guess is all wrong, but I did tell Madame Deriby that I would like to take Latin and French.”

“Oh-h!” moaned the child dismally, “and I suppose now she will expect us all to want to be as wise as you are.”

But Betty said no more, for the office door was opening and her own name was being called. With a wild look at Adele she disappeared, to return in a very few moments, her pretty face dimpled with smiles.

“Oh! Madame Deriby is a perfect dear!” she exclaimed. “I’ll never be scared of her again. I just know that I am going to adore her!”

Last of all it was Adele’s turn, and when she came out of the office, her eyes were shining like stars.

“Oh, girls!” she said, “something wonderful has happened! Come up to our room as quickly as ever you can and I will tell you all about it!”

Much mystified, the girls trooped after their favorite and when they reached their sun-flooded Apple-Blossom Alley, they clamored, “Della, do tell us what it is. You look as though something ever so nice was just about to happen.”

“See if you can guess!” that maiden exclaimed. “It’s the one thing that I’ve been wishing and wishing for the very most of all.”

“Oh, then it will not be hard to guess,” Betty Burd declared. “It must be that Gertrude Willis is coming to Linden Hall.”

Adele nodded brightly. “Sit down, everybody, and I’ll tell you all about it.”

Down on the floor they sat in a semicircle. They found this better for confidences than being scattered about the room on chairs.

“Well,” Adele began, “I was in Madame Deriby’s office and in answer to her question, I had just told her that I liked literature best of all, when there came a knock on the door and Miss Berry, the kindergarten teacher, came in and her eyes were red and swollen. She held an open letter. Madame Deriby stood up and put an arm about her. Miss Berry, you know, is hardly more than a girl herself. They had both forgotten about me, and I was wondering if I ought to leave the room when the teacher said that her little brother was ill, and cried for her day and night, and she did so want to go to him.

“‘Of course you must go!’ Madame Deriby said kindly. ‘Ask Marie to help you pack and I will have Patrick bring around the bus. You ought to be able to catch the afternoon train.’

“When Miss Berry was gone, Madame Deriby telephoned to the stables and then she sat down and looked thoughtful for a moment. At last, turning to me with a smile, she said, ‘Adele, I was just wishing that I knew some real nice older girl who would like to come to Linden Hall and help teach the very little ones in exchange for her tuition.’

“Girls, when I heard that I almost cried out in delight. However, I tried to hide my joy and I said as quietly as I could, ‘Madame Deriby, I know just such a girl and I am sure that you would like to have her.’ Then I told her all about our darling Trudie. Madame Deriby was ever so pleased and she told me to write and ask if Gertrude can come next Saturday, and since that will be day after to-morrow, I must pen the epistle at once,” she ended, springing up and skipping to her desk.

Then, when the letter had been mailed, the girls from Sunnyside waited in almost breathless eagerness to know whether or not their dear friend could join them at Linden Hall.