came in an insinuating tone from the window-seat across the room. 

 Hester maintained a lofty silence, and tipping 2 the corn into a bowl, sprinkled it with salt, adding dabs of butter. She then tossed a piece to the dog, and began to sample it herself with apparent satisfaction, for she smacked her lips and said, reflectively, as she put her hands to her burning cheeks: “I believe it is quite worth ruining my complexion over.” 

2

 Suddenly she whisked up bowl and dog, and crossing the room, dropped both on the seat beside her sister. “There!” she exclaimed, “you knew I would never eat it alone, even if you are a duffer!” 

 “‘Duffer’ is most inelegant” (this from Julie in an assumption of stern reproach); “I do not see wherever you picked up such a word.” 

 “Read it in a book,” quoted Hester, laughing. This was a joke of longstanding between them—to hold literature responsible for any suspicious scraps of knowledge. It was a phrase they used also with much frequency in argument, particularly when the subject was beyond the range of their experience. “Don’t know a thing about it, read it in a book,” one of them would say facetiously, by way of backing up some remarkable statement, and feel herself at once relieved from personal responsibility. 

 “You need not put on such frills,” Hester now said to her sister. “You know you adore slang yourself.” 3 

3

 Julie was gazing out of the window. “Look, Hester, quick! There go the crew! How they are skimming down the river! I’d no idea they trained out here, had you?” 

 Both girls watched intently as the narrow shell shot by, the men pulling the long, steady stroke which was the pride of their university. 

 “Aren’t they splendid?” Hester exclaimed, enthusiastically. “I wish we knew some of the college men, Julie, don’t you?” 

 “It would be fun. I’d like to see something of college life. Perhaps we may meet an occasional senior if Miss Ware takes us about any this winter.” 

 “Do you suppose he’d be nice?” inquired Hester, quizzically. “I don’t think we know much about very young men, do you? All we’ve known have been so much older than we are.” 

 Julie puckered up her forehead and gazed after 

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