Timmons--I knew you would wake up. Now, everybody! That's the way!" Dolly was waving her hands like an earnest evangelist, while Wilks, with a look of astonishment, was struggling to his feet to offer some sort of protest. "Don't pay attention to him!" Dolly cried. "Vote now and be done with it!" The house was in a turmoil of amused excitement. Timmons stood by his wife's side waving his hat and slapping his thigh. "Stand up, boys--every man-jack of you!" he yelled. "Them fellers got this thing up agin that gal. Give it to 'em good an' sound." The entire audience was on its feet laughing and applauding. Dolly stood waving her hands with the delight of a happy child. She turned to the teachers behind her, and one by one she gradually enticed them to their feet. "That makes it unanimous," she said, and, flushed and panting, she tripped down the steps to the floor. Mostyn edged his way through the chattering throng toward her. He was beside himself with enthusiasm. A lump of tense emotion filled his throat; he would have shouted but for the desire not to appear conspicuous. "Wonderful, wonderful!" he said, when he finally reached her, and caught her hand and shook it. "Do you think so?" she said, absent-mindedly; and he noticed that she was staring anxiously toward the door. "Why, you beat them to a finish!" he cried. "You fairly wiped up the ground with them." "Oh, I don't know!" she said, excitedly. "Come on, please. I want to--to get out." Wondering what could be in her mind, he followed her as well as he could through the jostling throng. Women and men extended their hands eagerly; but she hurried on, scarcely hearing their congratulations and good-natured jests. At the door she reached back, caught Mostyn's hand, and drew him out into the open. A few paces away stood a couple under a tree. And toward them Dolly hastened, now holding to the arm of her companion. Then he recognized Ann and saw that she was with a tall, ungainly young man of eighteen or twenty. The two stood quite close together. "Ann," Dolly said, sharply, pausing a few feet from the pair, "come here, I want to see you." Doffing his straw hat, the young man moved away, and Ann slowly and doggedly approached her sister. "What do you want, Dolly?" "I want you to walk straight home!" Dolly retorted. "I'll talk to you there, not here." "I wasn't doing anything," Ann began; but Dolly raised her hand. "Go on home, I tell you. I'm ashamed of you--actually ashamed to call you sister." Without a word Ann turned and walked homeward. "You certainly got the best of those fellows," Mostyn chuckled, still under the heat of her triumph. "I never was so surprised in my life. It was funny to watch their faces."