"I do wish you would. I would be more glad than I can tell you. I am going to consider that point settled, and I thank you a thousand times. Dolly, I want to tell you something about that room-mate of mine when we get upstairs. I've meant to do it all vacation, and our jolly times have just crowded it out of my head." CHAPTER VI But it was not until they were on the train the next day, that an opportunity came for Beth to tell her story. There had been a jolly, sleepy crowd that had eaten the early breakfast and then gone down to the station. The boys had supplied them well with magazines, flowers and boxes of candy. To Mary Sutherland it was all like a new world--the handsome house, the elegant furnishings, the plenty and comfort that pervaded the whole atmosphere, and while that part was nothing at all new to Beth, she, too, felt as if she were in a new world, for it was a world in which the home-atmosphere was sweet and wholesome, blessed as it was with love and mutual forbearance. The good-byes were all said at last, and Dolly had to wink hard to keep back the tears. "Do you remember how homesick I was in September, Beth, and how you came to the rescue like a good angel? What should I have done without you? It will be only a month now until the Christmas holidays, and I certainly ought to be able to stand it four weeks without getting lonesome." "You should have seen what a forlorn object she was, Mary," interrupted Beth. "She sat on the edge of her bed looking as if she had not a friend in all the world." "In all the college, you mean, and I had not, either, until you walked in. I shall bless you forever for that deed of humanity. Even my room-mate was missing then; you stayed for the marriage of a sister, did you not, Mary?" "Yes, and I am afraid that I was not much comfort to you after I _did_ appear. I didn't mean to be dictatorial and horrid, but I am afraid that--" "You were nothing but what was all right, Mary," Dolly interrupted. "We were not acquainted at first, that was all." "I was not nice, but I meant to be, and I'll try to fit in better hereafter. You should have had Beth for a room-mate, though I'm too selfish to propose any change this year." "We can all three be good friends, Mary, so far as that goes, but I certainly wish that some other room-mate had been allotted to me than Margery Ainsworth." "You were going to tell us something about her, Beth; now is a good opportunity." "Very well, only you girls must understand that I am telling this in confidence, because I want your advice. I don't know whether it is my duty to say anything or not. Of course, girls don't like to be tell-tales any more than boys do, but it seems to me that the good name of the college is more or less concerned in this, and we cannot afford to have any girl do things which would bring us into disrepute." "Of course not," Dolly said energetically. "Well, what is it?"