"So she is. It's fearfully hard on her if what Agnes Lowe says is really true. I vote we try to be nice to her, to make up." "Any girl who refers to it would be a cad." "Well, look here! Let us try to get her made secretary of our 'Dramatic'." "Right you are! I'll propose her myself." Mavie ran quickly upstairs to the classroom. "Aren't you coming, Dorothy? It's the committee meeting of the 'Dramatic', you know. The others are all waiting; they sent me to fetch you." "You'll get on just as well without me," growled Dorothy, with her head inside her desk. "Nonsense! Don't be such a goose. I tell you, everybody's waiting." "Dorothy's jealous of Hope," piped Annie Gray, who, as monitress, was performing her duty of cleaning the blackboard. "I'm not! How can you say such a thing? I don't care in the least about the Wardenship." "Then come and show up at the meeting, just to let them see you're not sulking, at any rate," whispered Mavie. "Do be quick! I can't wait any longer." Dorothy slammed her desk lid, but complied. Though she would rather have preferred her own society that day, she did not wish her conduct to be misconstrued into jealousy or sulks. "Go on, Mavie, and I'll follow," she replied abruptly, but not ungraciously. As she strolled downstairs she noticed Alison Clarke standing rather aimlessly on the landing, as if she did not quite know where to go or what to do. Dorothy's conscience gave her a prick. She had quite forgotten Alison, who, as a new girl, must be feeling decidedly out of things at the College. She certainly might have employed the eleven-o'clock interval much more profitably in befriending the new-comer than in mooning round the playground by herself, brooding over her own troubles. However, it was not too late to make up for the omission. "Hallo!" she exclaimed. "Not a very breezy occupation to stand reading the Sixth Form timetable, is it?" "I've nothing better to do," replied Alison, whose rosy face looked a trifle forlorn. "I don't know a soul here yet, or the ways of the place." "You know me! Come along to the gym.; we're going to have a committee meeting." Alison brightened visibly. "What's the meeting about?" she asked, as she stepped briskly with Dorothy along the passage. "It's our 'Dramatic'. You see, we who stay for dinner get up little plays among ourselves. Each Form acts one or two every term. They're nothing grand--not like the swell things they have at the College Dramatic Union--and we only do them before the other girls in the gym., but they're great fun, all the same." "I love acting!" declared Alison, with unction. "Ever done any?" "Rather! We were keen on it at the school I went to in Leamstead. I was 'Nerissa' once, and 'Miss Matty' in _Scenes from Cranford_, and 'The March Hare' in _Alice in Wonderland_. I have the mask still, and the fur costume, and Miss Matty's cap and curls." "Any other properties?"