“Don’t worry, Beauty,” Leila said. “We’ll be coming back before long. We’ll not ’phone her from the Hall. She has a taste for surprises. She only knows you are soon to be here. She’ll be highly pleased to have you walk in on her.” “I’ll surely do it,” Marjorie returned with a decided little nod. She half smiled as she recalled a time when she had waited patiently to receive a summons into the eccentric old lady’s presence. The peremptory invitation to appear at Hamilton Arms on a certain day to tea had filled her with the same sort of pleasant trepidation with which she would have received a summons to a royal court. Hamilton Arms was truly Miss Susanna’s castle, where she reigned supreme, a lonely little chatelaine of a big house. The smile still lingered on the lieutenant’s lips as the car sped on and made the last turn in the highway before the end of Hamilton Estates was reached. Between the Estates and the campus of Hamilton College which had now come into view lay the strip of land on which was built the row of houses once used by the workmen who had erected the college buildings. Of the four occupants of the roadster Vera’s eyes were the only ones turned away from the territory at the left hand side of the road. The other three girls were gazing in that direction with varying expressions. Leila’s was purely mischievous. She was enjoying the amazement which Marjorie and Robin were showing. “Why—what—who——?” Stupefied by what she was seeing Marjorie forgot to greet her old friend the campus in her usual devoted fashion. Once, at this point along the straggling meadow road, dignified by the name of the street, had stood a shabby row of weather-stained houses. They had extended for a distance of what might be measured as two city blocks. An equally straggling cross lane divided the row almost in halves. Those above the cross lane looked more uncompromisingly ugly and faded than ever under the afternoon sun. Those below the cross lane! Where were they? Where they had once stood were now huge heaps of broken brick, plaster, boards and the debris which always attends the tearing down of buildings. The ringing sound of many hammers in motion, the snapping of yielding wooden beams, the rattle of falling brick and plaster was in the air. Above the cross lane the upper block of houses stood intact in its dingy loneliness. They appeared to frown upon the wreck of their companions of years. Simultaneously Robin and Marjorie had raised a cry of astonishment. Vera promptly stopped the car in order to give them a chance to view the surprise at leisure. She dropped her hands from the wheel and with Leila enjoyed their amazement. “Robin Page, can you believe your eyes?” Marjorie’s voice achieved bewildered heights. “Seeing is believing. How did it happen? That’s what is bothering me.”