"Why in the world don't you ever come to see me," said Miss Myrtle, with an expostulatory little shake. "But there,--I know the reason. You are so carried away with Cherry Street that you haven't a thought for old friends! Oh, I know all about it, Miss Billy.--You needn't deny it! I've heard all about your Improvement Club, and the social you gave, and everything. Maude and Blanche wrote in their last London letter that slumming was more fashionable than ever, there." "Yes?" said Miss Billy, looking meaningly at Theodore,--but Miss Myrtle was not to be so lightly shaken off. "Margaret Van Courtland tells me she is a member of your Club,--and that elegant young college man, Mr. Lindsay, too, that the girls are raving over. Why didn't you let me know about it this summer? I've been just aching to help somebody. I want you to put my name down right away for membership. Maude and Blanche will want to join when they come, I know. They'll love to belong to anything Margaret Van Courtland is connected with. They just adore her,--and they'll enjoy slumming." "It isn't slumming," said Miss Billy, with repressed indignation. "It's just a little neighbourhood affair, and we are all on perfectly equal terms." "Call it what you will, only let me belong! Remember now,--you've promised!" And with a final squeeze to the imprisoned arm, and a brilliant smile for Theodore, Miss Myrtle and her companions happily retraced their steps to the sacred confines of the Seminary. "Hold me up till my shattered nerves are restored," murmured Theodore. "They almost ate me up!" "Miss Myrtle has an axe to grind, but she shall not grind it on my grindstone," said Miss Billy resolutely. "She has a misty idea that I've become fashionable and quite the thing, and that she's not in it. She called our Improvement work 'slumming,' and wants to join our club. Imagine her condescending to Mr. Hennesy, or Marie Jean, or Mr. Schultzsky, or in short, any of them! And yet, Theodore, I'm such a miserably weak character, I couldn't help being glad I had on my real lace collar when she was talking to me." "Well," said Theodore, "the tables have at last turned,--and strangely enough, through our friends in Cherry Street. You wakened, as it were, to find yourself famous, Miss Billy." "Nonsense!" said Miss Billy. "I gave her distinctly to understand that every member of the Improvement Club was a friend of mine,--but of course she is too shallow to understand it. Still, our relations with many of the girls will be less strained now, because of her friendliness, and that is something to be thankful for." The Blanchard trap stood at the door of the High School that afternoon, when school was dismissed. Miss Myrtle herself, in a natty green coat with a scarlet collar, and a red Tam o' Shanter, sat high on the box with the reins in her hands.